


Scars of the Past

by bafflethemwithbullshit



Series: Cosmic Dragon [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Criminal Minds, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bc damn, F/M, Lincoln's not dead either bc fuck that, Trip's not dead bc I'm not here for that shit, and trip's ready to claim my underwear, bc lincoln isn't dead, beer dad coulson, coulson's original shield family, daisy isn't rogue, emily meets the ducklings, jägermeister dropout cousin maria, mack is big and fluffy, origins of melinda may and maria hill, vodka aunt emily, wine mom may
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2018-07-11 19:52:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7067710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bafflethemwithbullshit/pseuds/bafflethemwithbullshit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emily is finally in a good place back at the BAU. But another ghost from her past may come back to haunt her. How was she supposed to tell her family that she was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? That she was never really Interpol, and that was another lie? </p><p>S.H.I.E.L.D. needs Emily's help, but Emily may lose everything she just got back in the process.</p><p>(Another, updated, version of "Sometimes Things Can Be Left Unsaid")</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Home

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so a while back (a long while back) I started writing a story called "Sometimes Things Can Be Left Unsaid". I lost interest and now everything's out of whack, but now that we're in between seasons for both shows, I thought I'd give it another crack.
> 
> I'm not putting any current events in there so it's not gonna change over time. It's just the characters and mentions of previous events. That was my mistake last time.
> 
> Hopefully I do a better job this time.

It'd been nearly six months since she'd been back from London. Six months and so far everything had been going smoothly. Sure, the nightmares were still frequent and she hardly got any sleep, but that was nothing unusual. London and INTERPOL had been great, and it was nice to have that change, and honestly, she needed it. But INTERPOL had been run perfectly fine without her before, and continue to do so now.

But the BAU was her home, and eventually, everyone comes home.

Emily walked into the bullpen early on a Monday morning, and to no surprise, Hotch was already there. Dropping her bag off at her desk, she kept walking towards the stairs.

She knocked twice on his open door "Thought you were gonna come in at a reasonable hour today," she smirked as she crossed her arms over her chest and lent against the door frame.

Hotch looked up from the file he was working on before looking at his watch "This is reasonable."

Emily snorted "You are one strange man, Aaron Hotchner,"

"Look who's talkin'," he shot back, a small smirk on his face.

Letting out a small laugh, she pushed off the door frame "Well, I'm about to get some coffee, you want some?"

"I-"

"Never mind, stupid question," she started, and started to turn around to walk away "I'll be back," she replied and walked back down the stairs, not noticing the dimples on her boss' face as his smile grew.

Not five minutes later did she come back with two steaming cups of coffee, she placed one down on his desk in front of him and sat down across from him as he thanked her. He shouldn't be surprised that she knew how he took his coffee but yet somehow it still amazed him.

"New case?" she asked, her legs spread apart in the Prentiss fashion, slouching over, making his lip twitch slightly.

"Old one," he said, leaning back in his chair, taking the coffee with him "One of my first cases that I ever tried as a prosecutor is getting tried for appealed, I have to testify,"

"You think there's a chance it could be overturned?" Emily asked him.

"From a technical standpoint, no. But you know how some cases can go," he pointed out as she nodded "And I was only new back then, all they need is to doubt my credibility and they've got a foot in the door,"

"I've seen you pull off worse," she assured him, taking a sip from the mug in her hands.

He smiled at her, silently thanking her for the reassurance, before frowning slightly "I thought you gave up caffeine..."

She let out a small, nervous laugh "I tried, I really did..."

Hotch let out a chuckle "How long did you last?"

"Less than a week into London," she said, her face pulled into a wince.

"You lasted longer than I thought you would," he pointed out, blatantly smirking at her.

"Okay, you know what? That is just offensive, I have self control, I could stick to something if I wanted to!" she defended herself, making him raise his eyebrows at her.

"Oh yeah? What about that time you said you were gonna try and go vegetarian?" he asked.

"That was different," Emily shook her head.

"And that time you said you were gonna give up chocolate?" he pointed out to her.

"Oh, come on Hotch, did you honestly expect me to be able to give up chocolate?"

Hotch let out a small laugh as he replied "No, and that's my point,"

"Y'know honestly I'm feeling a little attacked right now," she replied, making him shrug a single shoulder.

"You do it to yourself,"

Emily chuckled and looked at her watch "Alright, I think my daily Hotch distraction time is up, better get to work,"

Daily Hotch distraction time was what she called it whenever she went into his office, because they rarely ever talked about work when she went in, other than when he called her in specifically for a case.

Every day, at a certain time, Emily would walk up those stairs and into his office, and she would bring him a coffee, lunch or dinner if they were there late, because she knew he would forget.

Every day, she would make him talk for five minutes about something other than work. She would listen to him talk about his son, or a horrible date that he went on, and she would do the same.

She started doing it every once in a while before she left for London, and ever since she got back, she started doing it more frequently. And the days he saw her stressing herself out so much that she forgot, he would call her into his office to return the favour.

As Emily started to walk out, Hotch called to her "Hey," she turned at the doorway, and Hotch lifted his mug of coffee "Thanks,"

Emily nodded, a small smile on her face "Anytime," she replied, before walking down to her desk.

"I see you've had your daily dose," she heard from behind her as she pulled her chair out. Emily whipped her head around, pinpointing the source of the voice. Alex.

"My what?"

"Your private Hotch-time," she smirked, sitting down at her own desk.

Emily rolled her eyes "I made myself a coffee, so I figured I'd pour him one too,"

"Mhm," Alex eyed her "Whatever you say,"

With more profilers than they had ever had in a team at one given time, the partners were usually scattered. However, Alex had noticed that Hotch had paired up with Emily more than any other team member ever since she got back. Whether it was just keeping an eye on her or just keeping her close for other reasons, Alex couldn't really tell, she suspected both.

In the last six months, however, Emily and Alex had become rather close. Their linguistics specialties had made them bond at first, but as time went by, they had become close. Emily had even guest lectured in Alex' class.

And though Alex had been with the BAU for three years now, she had never seen a bond like Hotch and Emily's. If she had to guess, she would say that whatever that was had started many years ago, longer than either of them would ever care to admit.

One-by-one the rest of the team filed in, with the usual visit from Garcia before she retreated to her lair, she had managed to convince the women into another girls night. Complaining that they had only had one girls night since Emily had returned, she'd used every trick in the book to get them to agree.

They'd been working for about an hour before Emily looked up at hr surroundings. Alex working diligently on her paperwork, throwing in a couple remarks here and there at Reid and Morgan who continue to try and out-prank the other. JJ tries not to get roped in but manages to be put in the middle every time. She can see Rossi through his window, and she's pretty sure he's not working at all but somehow manages to get all his paperwork done anyway.

Then she looks through Hotch's window. He's on the phone, and he writes something down before he hangs up a split second before he catches her eye. He's a bit far away, but she can just make out the smile that he shoots her before she hears frantic footsteps running through the bullpen, catching her attention.

Garcia runs past them and up the staircase to Hotch's office.

"Uh-oh," Morgan says.

"Looks like we're grabbing our go-bags," Alex adds, leaning back in her chair. Everyone in looking up at the office, waiting to see what's going on, until a few moments later Hotch emerges with Garcia in tow.

"Conference room," he simply says.

There's no 'five minutes', there's no personal message delivery, just an order from the boardwalk. And that is never good.

As everyone finishes off their files and starts getting their things sorted, Emily takes another look around.

This was her job. This was her family. And this is her home.

All she could do was pray that nothing would screw it up this time.


	2. Only Human

"Three bodies in the last three weeks," Garcia started grimly as briefed the team "You can look at the photos on your tablets because I'm not putting them up on the screen,"

Every member of the team reacted to the photographs, including Hotch. The gruesome photos swiping across their screens as Garcia continued to talk "Jessica Harkoff, 28, Harley Frost, 30, and Sarah Parlow, 25, all found exactly the same way. There's no official cause of death, the M.E. hasn't been able to find one,"

"My God," JJ said, shaking her head "They've literally been ripped apart,"

"Who the hell could do something like this?" Morgan asked.

"You mean 'what'," Rossi added "Nothing human, that's for sure,"

"Well someone had to do it," Alex interjected "They were all found in the middle the city, and there's no claw marks to suggest that an animal did this,"

"Then whoever did this had a whole lot of rage," Emily jumped in "And for something this violent, less than a week between each kill is not much of a cooling off period,"

"Who's on the case?" Rossi asked.

"We are," Hotch spoke up "NYPD detectives lost a few of their own a couple weeks ago, they've been backlogged ever since and they want us to take it off their hands, they don't have the money or the manpower for this type of investigation, they handed it over to FBI in New York, they're giving it to us."

Emily swiped through the crime scene photos once more. Something about this case seemed way too familiar for it to be comfortable, yet she couldn't put her finger on it.

"The New York field office are letting us borrow their resources whilst we're in town," Garcia pointed out.

"Alright, everybody call who you need to call, this is going to be a long case," Hotch nodded as he started to stand "Wheels up in 30."

* * *

"Phil." Melinda walked into his office without knocking. Coulson was sitting at his desk, going through blueprints to the base.

"What would you think of a swimming pool?" he asked her. He could tell she was irritated, maybe even bordering angry, and whenever she was like this he would try and distract her. Yet it never worked.

"Did you give this case to the feds?" she asked him, her hands going to her hips, expecting him to give an explanation.

"Yes." May didn't respond, she just gave him a look that told him he had better explain or there would be severe consequences "It's the only way I know how to get her back here," he said, standing from his chair and walking around his desk to stand in front of her.

"She doesn't want to come back, Phil. Not under any circumstances, she made that very clear," Melinda said sternly, knowing he was walking a very thin line with his approach.

"And we will deal with her wrath when we get to it, but now that she's on the case, she won't walk away," Phil explained before holding up the blueprint in between them "So, what do you think? Pool?"

Snatching the blueprint out of his hand, she threw it back on his desk "Phil! You didn't just put Emily on the case, you put her entire team on it, we've had enough to deal with ever since the ATCU originally announced that inhumans exist, and now we've got feds to deal with too,"

"May-"

"And not just any feds, Phil. The BAU, Emily's unit." she cut him off angrily "What do you think the odds are that they know about her past? Because I'd bet anything that they don't,"

"We need her help,"

"Then pick up the phone!" she yelled at him before spinning on her heels and making her way to the door "And a pool is a terrible idea!"

Phil stood in his office as she slammed the door, bouncing slightly on his toes "Well..." he mumbled to himself "that went better than I thought it would."

* * *

Once they got to New York, the team split up into groups. Alex, JJ, Morgan, Rossi, Reid and Emily split among the crime scenes, whilst Hotch went to the New York Federal Plaza to coordinate with the original case agent.

"Agent Hotchner," he heard from a woman walking towards him, making him nod his head in affirmation "Laura Meyers, thanks for coming,"

"Not a problem, thank you for calling us," he nodded, shaking her hand.

"I have never seen anything like this before," Agent Meyers said as she led him to a large conference room where everything had been set up for them.

"I can honestly say, neither have we," Hotch replied "Is this all the evidence?"

"There's a few pieces still being processed in the lab but other than that, yes," she replied, Hotch nodded in reply "I'll let you get to work, I'll be in my office if you need anything,"

"Thank you, Agent Meyers," Hotch said.

"I really hope you catch this son of a bitch," she replied, walking out of the conference room, closing the door behind her.

In all his time working for the FBI, Hotch had always managed to disassociate himself from the cases. The child cases got him, he had never doubted that. But this case had struck another chord.

As he looked at all the victims faces, they all told the same story. Dark brown hair, brown eyes, athletic. They reminded him of a photo he had found a while back of him and Emily, just after she graduated from college, before he left her mother's security detail.

Hotch knew already that this case was going to be long, but something told him that it was going to be personal too.

* * *

"This is a whole 'nother level of rage," Morgan pointed out as he and JJ walked through the first crime scene.

JJ shook her head, looking around at the blood and little pieces of flesh still on the ground "You know, even if this guy is extremely angry, you'd expect there to be some sort of hesitation, but this is..."

"Determined."

"Exactly, I mean, look around," said JJ, opening her arms up to gesture to the entire crime scene "There's no evidence of a murder weapon, no cause of death and no forensic evidence, I'd say it's almost organised,"

"This unsub's all over the place," said Morgan, shaking his head.

* * *

"You ever see anything like this back at INTERPOL?" Alex asked her partner as they walked out of the alley, having finished processing the scene themselves.

"Like this? No." Emily replied, shaking her head and ripping off her gloves, throwing them in the trash can on the sidewalk "I saw a lot of things, trafficking, sex crimes, murders, kidnappings, but never anything like this,"

"You know, something's not adding up here," said Alex "Something's off, the level of organisation suggests that he's killed before, but a murder like this would've shown up in Garcia's initial search,"

"Well, maybe he didn't kill with this much rage, something set him off," said Emily, noticing a cop in uniform, across the street, watching them "Hang on, I'll be back,"

Emily made her way across the street "Excuse me, Officer?" she addressed him, he hadn't moved since he saw her approaching, which set off alarm bells "Agent Prentiss, FBI," she flashed her badge before putting back in her pocket "Is this your regular beat?"

"No," he shook his head "My boss just wanted me to keep an eye on things here,"

"Oh yeah? And who would that be?" Emily eyed him skeptically, knowing one thing for sure. He was definitely not a cop.

"Coulson." he replied, his American accent disappearing and a British one taking its place. He watched as realization dawned over her face before she clenched her jaw.

"Coulson's dead." she said darkly.

"Did you really believe that?" the 'officer' asked.

"What's your name?" she asked him.

"Hunter," he stuck out his hand for her to shake. She didn't take it "Look, I'm guessing this case seems familiar to you, and that's because it is. Coulson wanted me to tell you 'White Water', whatever the hell that means,"

Emily cocked her head for a split second as she processed Coulson's message, before straightening her spine and leaning in threateningly.

"Listen to me carefully, Agent Hunter, because I'm only going to say this once. You tell Coulson that if he or S.H.I.E.L.D. comes anywhere near my team, he'll have to be revived again."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said, giving her an irritating smirk and salute before she composed herself and walked calmly back to Alex, who was waiting patiently by the car.

"Everything all good?" she asked as they started to climb into the SUV.

"Yeah," Emily replied "Just a guy who shouldn't be allowed to wear that uniform,"

* * *

"What'd she say?" Coulson asked Hunter as he walked back onto the base.

"That is one scary woman," Hunter started "Don't get me wrong, May's still the champ but damn..."

"Hunter!" Coulson interrupted.

"She said she thought you were dead," Hunter replied as they started walking down the corridor.

"That's it? That's all she had to say?" Coulson asked her.

"She also threatened to kill you again, but I don't think she'd follow through on that one," Hunter shrugged.

"Yeah, I wouldn't be too sure of that," Coulson replied, rolling up his sleeves "Emily Prentiss is a lot of things but full of empty threats is not one of them,"

"What's the story anyway?" Hunter asked him "Why does she hate you so much?"

"She doesn't hate _me_...I hope," Coulson started as they walked up the staircase, towards him office "She hates S.H.I.E.L.D. No one really knows the whole story, only she does. Let's just hope she got my message and agrees to it,"

"Oh yeah, that reminds me, what does 'White Water' mean anyway?" Hunter asked.

Coulson smirked slightly before answering "That's classified Agent Hunter,"

"I thought there were no classifications anymore?"

"With this one, there is," Coulson replied, sitting down at his desk "Can you find May and ask her to come in here, please?"

"Sure," Hunter replied "Oh, can I keep this?"

"The uniform?" Coulson raised his eyebrows "Why?"

"Because I know Bobbi has a thing for uniforms," he replied.

"Too much information Hunter," Coulson replied "Just make sure you get it dry cleaned,"

"Thanks, Boss," he grinned before closing the door behind him.

* * *

_"I've tried finding similar crimes in the last ten years and I've come up with nothing, it's like the guy has come out from nowhere,"_

"What about the victims Garcia? Any connection?" Rossi asked.

_"Not that I can tell. They lived in different districts, used different doctors, grocery stores, chemists, gyms, everything."_  

"So the only real connection is their physical appearance," JJ added.

"That would make these opportunistic killings," Emily added "And those types of unsubs are never organised,"

"Not necessarily," said Alex, crossing her arms over her chest "If our preliminary profile is correct, we suspected that he's killed before, if he's perfected his technique, that means he can kill at random and still be considered organised,"

"Well, that level of technique takes years to master," Hotch jumped in "Which means we might need to look further back than ten years," he said before addressing the woman who was waiting on loudspeaker "Garcia, expand your search, go back twenty years, this unsub would need experience, but still have the physicality to pull a murder like this off,"

_"On it, I'll be back in a flash,"_

* * *

It was reaching ten o'clock that night and the team had gotten nowhere. Garcia had called back with nothing, and every little piece of evidence they had didn't make sense. They were getting tired, and frustrated and Hotch knew they weren't going to hold their rooms forever.

"It's been a long day," he started "Let's go back to the hotel, we'll look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow morning,"

"That sounds like a plan," Morgan said, as they all started to pack up.

As every member of the team started to file out of the room, Hotch noticed that Emily hadn't moved from her chair. She was just sitting there. Staring at the board.

"Emily?" he asked, and Dave lingered slightly, noticing something was wrong. Hotch turned to the older man and said quietly "Go on ahead, we'll make our own way back," Dave nodded, hesitating slightly before making his way out with the rest of the team.

Hotch sat down next to her, not saying anything, she didn't move, didn't take her eyes away from the photos.

"Do you ever wonder why we do this?" she eventually asked, still not looking at him "When I came back from Paris, I thought that everything was going to be fine, and it wasn't."

Hotch frowned as she continued to talk "Nothing was fine after that," she shook her head "And then this time when I came back, I actually thought everything _was_ fine, but..."

"Emily, it's okay to let the cases affect you," Hotch started, knowing that she was doubting herself "It reminds us that we're human," She finally tuned her head to make eye contact with him "Okay?"

Emily nodded slightly before Hotch stood, holding out his hand to help her up.

They made their way back to the hotel in silence, Emily looking out the window of the car at the lights. She could feel his eyes on her from time to time, making sure that she was okay. Usually, she would tell him to stop, but tonight she didn't really care.

She'd always suspected Fury was lying to her when he told her about Coulson, it was something in his voice. That one-eyed bastard was a terrible liar when it came to her. He was the same with Hill, and May too. It was a weakness. She'd gotten word that he died when S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, but she never believed that for a second. She would have to watch his cold dead body be buried before she would believe that Nick Fury had died.

Hotch had noticed her distracted the entire ride home. Even when she was getting out of the car, she seemed to be on autopilot. But he kept quiet until she had walked past her room and followed him to his by accident.

"Emily..." he said softly, breaking her out of her trance.

"Huh? What?" she asked, making him smile slightly.

"Your room," he started, pointing one door down "Is that one you just passed,"

"Right, sorry," she said before turning around and walking towards her door.

"Emily," Hotch stopped her, taking a few steps towards her so he didn't have to talk very loud "You'd still tell me, right?" she looked at him quizzically "If you were having a bad day..."

She gave him a tired, soft smile "Yeah, I would,"

"Okay, good," he nodded, placing a hand on her arm as he started to turn "Get some rest,"

"You too," she replied and waited for him to close the door before she opened hers. However, instead of going into the room, she closed the door again and walked back down the hall towards the emergency staircase.

Coulson gave her that message for a reason, and after almost ten years without any real contact, she was a little anxious. But even more, she was pissed off.

She bounced down the staircase at lightning speed, hopping the railing and jumping down until she hit the ground floor. It was a skill she had become accustomed to in her early years at S.H.I.E.L.D. It helped her get out of a couple hairy situations over the years.

Walking out of the lobby, she headed straight for Central Park. There weren't many people out, actually there were only a couple, and Emily suspected that they were agents. Emily almost laughed.

As she approached the lake, Emily saw a figure sitting down at the water's edge. She stopped, taking a breath before she continued up to him.

"Phil."

Coulson looked up at her, before standing to meet her eye.

"Emily. It's been a long time."


	3. Chuck Norris-Style

Something was still bugging him after he had gotten into bed. She was so distant and closed off and that never ended well. She had always kept things close to the chest, even when they had first met, in fact, she was more open now than she was back then. But he could always tell something was wrong.

Hotch lay in bed, his hands under his head as he looked up at the ceiling. The last time she closed off, they lost her for seven months.

Jumping out of bed, he slid on a pair of sweatpants over his boxers before grabbing his key card and exiting his room. His bare feet padded softly against the carpeted hallway before he reached her door, knocking softly.

After a moment he realized there was no movement and he knocked again. Nothing. That set off alarm bells, because even if she were asleep, Emily was anything but a heavy sleeper. Every bump on the plane would wake her, every time someone walked past her would startle her awake.

He knocked one more time, just for safe measure. Again, there was nothing. Which meant one of two things, either of which he didn't like. Quickly running down to the lobby, he managed to convinced the concierge to lend him a second key card to her room.

She wasn't there, her bags were there from when they dropped them off when they arrived in New York, but the bed hadn't been touched, the bathroom hadn't been used and the window wasn't open. She had never even been in there.

Running back to his room, he quickly grabbed some shoes and a jumper, before leaving the hotel to look for her. What was she thinking? It was midnight in New York City, which was never safe for anyone really. And, yes, she can take care of herself, and he didn't see her gun in her room which mean she has it, but still.

He didn't know whether to yell at her, or hug her, but he would most likely figure that out when he found her. Walking through the streets, he didn't even know where to start. Would she have gone back to the Federal building? Probably not. But something was bugging him about her, so he would look everywhere in New York if he had to.

* * *

"You look good," Coulson started "Alive."

Emily's mouth almost twitched at that "You too,"

Phil sat back down on the waters edge, waiting until she sat down next to him.

"What am I doing here, Phil?" she asked him, both of them looking out at the water, the park lights reflecting off the water's surface.

"We need your help," he started "The case you're working on, we gave it to you,"

"Why is S.H.I.E.L.D. interested?"

"Because we know who your unsub is," he said, picking up a tablet from next to him and handing it over to her "And so do you,"

Emily frowned as she looked at the tablet, a face she knew all too well "Mills."

"We thought he'd died when HYDRA took over, we'd written him off as a casualty," Coulson explained "We don't know why he's coming out of the shadows now, but it must've been a good reason,"

"That's what you need my help for, my profiling skills," Emily replied, handing the tablet back to him "Do you know how he survived?"

"Garret." Coulson simply said, and Emily sighed.

"I never trusted that son-of-a-bitch," she said, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them, linking her hands together.

"I know," Coulson smirked "We should've listened to you from the beginning,"

"You should've listened to me about a lot of things," Emily returned his smirk.

"So will you help?"

Emily sighed again "Phil, you should've just called, my entire team is looking for this guy and they have no idea what they've got themselves into,"

"I know, and I'm sorry, but would you have come if I didn't?" he asked her rhetorically, both knowing the answer "We can say it's an INTERPOL mission, make new identities for our agents, whatever you need,"

"No," she shook her head "I trust these people with my life, and they trust me with theirs, and they don't even know who I am, or what I was,"

"Well, if things don't work out at the FBI, we'd be lucky to have you back," Phil replied, making her snort out loud.

"Yeah, no thanks, I'm good," she replied "So S.H.I.E.L.D.'s operating from the shadows now..."

"We're working in tandem with the ATCU, they're our front," Phil explained, mimicking her posture "The President knows, and that's all we need,"

"The President was cool with enhanced people?" Emily raised an eyebrow at him.

"They call themselves inhumans," Phil explained "But no, only if we put them on a list. We had an index before and look how well that turned out, May and I have been trying to convince them to back off, and honestly I think they're just scared of her,"

Emily snorted again "Why am I not surprised?" she said, before frowning "May's back in the field?"

Phil simply nodded in return. They sat in silence for a while before he spoke again "I'm sorry,"

"For what?" she frowned.

"For not being there when you needed us," he explained "I went to your funeral, so did May, lots of us did actually."

Emily nodded and shrugged slightly "It's okay, what happened happened," she replied "I really am glad you're okay, Phil,"

"You too, kid," he replied, draping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her in for a side hug.

After a few moments, Emily looked at her watch "I gotta get back," she said, pulling away and standing up in front of him "I'll contact you when I can, I've some things to explain,"

"Here's my number, call it when you're ready," he replied as he handed over a card.

She nodded as she walked away, passing one of the agents on her way out "Agent Hunter," she said, passing by him.

"Ma'am,"

As she walked out of the park, she headed back towards the hotel, only to jump slightly when she heard a familiar voice yell "PRENTISS!"

"Hotch! God damn!" she said, putting a hand over her chest "What the fuck?!"

"What the fuck me? What the fuck you!" he continued to yell at her as they walked towards each other "Where the hell have you been?!"

"I just needed to clear my head," she replied, frowning confused at him behaviour.

"Well maybe you should let someone know first!" he yelled.

"Sure, why don't I ask for permission to go to the bathroom as well, _sir?_ " she replied sarcastically before walking past him.

"Don't get smart with me, Emily," he followed her "What if something happened to you?"

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you over your misogyny," she replied, making her way into the lobby and up the elevator, not holding the door open for him, so he had to quickly slide on through.

"So, now I'm sexist? For caring about one of my team members?" he asked as they made their way up to their floor.

"Oh, come on, would you really get up in the middle of the night for Morgan, or Dave? And then yell at them for taking a walk? You know, you haven't changed a bit," she continued as the elevator doors opened, and they made their way down the corridor "You don't trust women as much as men, after all these years of working together,"

"Prentiss-"

"No, Hotch, don't 'Prentiss' me," she spun around fast, as she reached her door, stepping in his face and lowering her voice, deepening it threateningly "I am a grown ass woman, I could take down anyone who tried anything with me-even without a gun, and don't think for a second that I couldn't do the same to you."

And with that, she entered her room and closed the door in his face, making him sigh.

Well, that didn't go as planned.

* * *

The next morning, about ten minutes before Emily was going to leave the hotel, there was a knock at her door. Opening it, she saw Hotch standing there with coffee and a paper bag.

"Peace offering?" he asked, hope filling his eyes. She smiled gently and stepped aside to let him in, making him smile back at her "Look, Emily, I'm-"

"Don't be," she replied, taking the cup with her name on it and taking a sip "I'm sorry I snapped at you, it was unprofessional,"

"So was knocking on your door in the middle of the night and then running through the streets trying to find you," he replied.

Emily cocked her head to the side "Why were you knocking on my door in the middle of the night?"

"You were having a bad day yesterday," he replied "And although you _said_ you would tell me, you didn't,"

Emily sighed, sitting on the end of the bed "Hotch, you don't have to look out for me,"

"I know that," he replied "I once saw you drop a grown man like he was an inconvenience to your day, I know what you're capable of," he pointed out, making her smile slightly "But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna care,"

Emily nodded, suddenly thinking about what was gonna happen today, which tore her stomach in two.

"What is it?" he asked, pulling a chair from the small table by the window and sitting across from her.

"Hotch, I lied to you last night," she started, making him look at her confused "When I said I needed to clear my head, that was a lie. I met an old friend of mine, an old colleague actually,"

She saw his back straighten and his eyebrows furrow further "Okay..."

"Don't look at me like that, he's like my brother," she added "I hadn't seen him in over ten years, he had information we could use,"

"An old colleague, like an INTERPOL colleague?" he asked, leaning forward on his elbows, now more interested in the information.

"Not exactly," she replied, looking down at the coffee cup in her hand "Hotch, there's something you need to know,"

* * *

He hadn't said a word to her after that, he'd just walked out to meet the team, her trailing behind him "Say something," she said as they got into the elevator.

"What do you want me to say, Emily?" he asked her, not looking her in the eye.

"I don't know, anything," she replied. But he didn't. He just looked forward and Emily accepted that they were all going to need time to process, including Hotch.

When they met up with the rest of the team in the lobby, they all noticed the tension "What's with you two?" Morgan asked straight up.

"Yeah, we heard yelling and running and all sorts last night," Dave added, usually he'd be rooting for it, but he already guessed what he hoped would've happened, didn't.

"Everyone listen up," Hotch said, ignoring their question "Morgan, Blake, Rossi, I need you to go back to the Federal Plaza, grab every bit of evidence there is, JJ, call Garcia, tell her we'll be coming to pick her up,"

"Woah, what the hell is going on?" asked Morgan asked.

"Everything will be explained, but for now I just need you to do what I ask," Hotch replied before continuing "Reid, I need you to grab everyone's gear together and put it in one of the SUVs," then he turned to Emily "Do what you have to," was all he said before he walked away, his phone to his ear.

"Do what you have to?" JJ asked Emily "Emily..."

"Just..." she stopped her best friend but didn't finish the sentence, before walking in the opposite direction to her boss to call Coulson.

_"That was sooner than I thought,"_

"Yeah, well, rip it off like a band aid, right?" she replied "We've got about an hour, where do you want us?"

_"You remember the abandoned warehouse on the east side? I'll have two agents waiting for you,"_

"How will I know they're your agents?" she asked.

_"You'll know."_

* * *

"Does someone want to tell us what's going on here?" asked Morgan "Has this got anything to do with INTERPOL?"

"No," she started as they made their way towards the warehouse. They left the SUV parked in a garage down the block and took everything with them, luckily there were only two boxes and their go-bags "Before the FBI, before the BAU, I never worked for INTERPOL, not really,"

"What are you talking about?" JJ asked "I saw the file, we all worked the case trying to find Doyle,"

"The case files were real, my creds were not," said Emily, trying the door, only for it to be locked. She took a step back before roundhouse kicking the door open, Chuck Norris-style.

"Emily, what the fuck?" asked Alex "What're we doing here?"

"After I graduated college, I was recruited to an organisation that had...unique specialties," she said, looking around and seeing the rusted staircase had fallen to pieces "They call themselves S.H.I.E.L.D."

"The guys that hunt aliens?" Dave asked.

"They don't hunt aliens, but yes, those guys," she replied, finding a whole heap of objects to stack up so the team could walk up to the roof.

"So you lied about who you were lying to work for?" Reid asked.

"Look, I know you guys are angry," she said, preoccupying herself with getting the team up to the roof "And I will explain everything to you later, right now we just need to get on that roof,"

As they made it to the second floor, Emily led them up the fire escape and onto the roof where two agents were waiting for them, Emily recognized one instantly.

"Well, well, well," the agent said "Look who's joining the party,"

"Hill," Emily approached the woman and couldn't help but smile a little as the younger woman embraced her.

"You look good," Maria replied "Life outside the spy-world suits you," she said, pulling back to look at her old friend.

"If only you had kept it that way," Emily added, making Maria smirk.

"Oh, please, you missed us," she replied before turning to the agents "You must be the BAU, good to finally meet you, Emily talks about you all the time,"

"No, I don't," Emily shook her head.

"Well, maybe if you called once in a while, you would," Maria shot back before gesturing to the man next to her. He was tall, handsome, and stood with respect "Agent Triplett, this is Emily Prentiss,"

"It's an honour, Ma'am," he stuck out his hand for her to shake, which she took "I've heard so much,"

"Don't listen to this one," Emily cocked her head at Maria "She once convinced a guy that his reflection in the mirror was his twin stuck inside,"

Maria laughed to herself "Poor Jasper, he had it comin' though,"

"What the hell is going on?" JJ asked, interrupting the little reunion happening in front of them.

"Right," Maria said, before pressing a button on her watch and a small jet suddenly appeared in front of them, making almost all of them flinch "Coulson's given me the green light to not blindfold you," she said as she led them up the ramp.

"Oh hell no," Dave said, pausing "I'm not gettin' in that thing,"

"Dave, it's perfectly safe," said Emily "You'll be strapped in the entire time,"

"That doesn't make me feel better," Dave said before he hesitantly walked onto the jet, muttering a prayer in Italian.

Hill started to sit down and strap herself in to one of the seats, Trip sitting in the co-pilot's seat "You're not flying the plane?"

"We thought you'd like to do the honours, Ma'am," Trip called back from the seat up front.

"Just like old times," Maria grinned "Like riding a bike,"

"No, not like riding a bike!" Dave protested "This is _not_ like riding a bike!"

Emily walked up front and sat in the pilot seat. Ghosting her hand over the controls before flicking the switch for the ramp. Everything was exactly the same, sure there were additions for new technology, but Maria was right. She knew this like the back of her hand.

She put the headset over her ears before she looked at Trip "I take it the coordinates are set,"

"Yes, Ma'am," he nodded.

"Kid," she started "You gotta stop calling me that,"


	4. Defensive Mechanisms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LMAO I'M BACK AFTER A YEAR
> 
> none of you are probably even interested anymore but hey, whatev. hope you enjoy!

They picked up Garcia on the way to the base. Which meant the uncomfortable silence that lingered in the quinjet before, had now turned into loud rambling with everyone else sitting in uncomfortable silence. The flight was short, an hour tops. And Emily had only heard Dave pray three times, which was a compliment in her eyes.

Walking onto the base was an experience that she dreaded, yet somehow, felt comfortable and familiar when she finally did it. The base was underground, completely different from when she was based in the Triskellion. Yet this based seemed oddly familiar, like she'd been there before, she just couldn't place it.

That was until she saw the giant S.S.R. logo on the wall. Ah, that makes sense.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D. now?" she asked.

"It's Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D." Maria replied.

"Well, he's always been the sentimental type," Emily smirked, Maria mimicking her expression.

Maria led them past multiple agents that weren't subtle when they stared at her. They made their way up a staircase and toward an office.

"Ready?" Maria asked, making Emily look at her, pretty much telling her to fuck off, making the younger woman chuckle "Stupid question," she said, knocking twice on the door before walking in "Phil, you've got a visitor,"

Emily snorted as she stepped into view "Visitor my ass," she retorted, taking a few more steps into the office to make room for the rest of the team.

"Thanks for coming," Coulson stepped out from around his desk, walking towards the group of agents.

"You didn't give us much of a choice," Hotch replied, though shaking Coulson's hand when he offered it.

"I apologize," Coulson said, shaking the hands of the rest of the team "My name is Phil Coulson, welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D."

"I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. was disbanded after the D.C. disaster," said Morgan, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We were, officially anyway," Coulson replied before walking back around his desk "But there was too much work to be done, and too much damage to be fixed to just walk away,"

"So what do you need from us?" asked Rossi.

Coulson pressed a few buttons on his tablet, and pointed to the large projected screen on the wall "Max Mills." Coulson started "Twenty years ago, S.H.I.E.L.D. got assigned to an enhanced running through the streets of New York,"

"An enhanced?" JJ asked, frowning.

"People with special powers," Emily clarified, turning to them but still facing the screen "He was only a kid, he didn't know how to control them, or how to use them really,"

"You know him?" Reid asked, making her nod in return.

"He was one of my firsts," Emily replied, looking back at the man on the screen "His powers were strong, we knew that, but he got turned down the wrong path,"

"How?" Morgan asked.

"An organisation called La Rivolta got their hands on him by infiltrating our base," Coulson explained "One of their operatives posed as an agent to get access to his box,"

"What did La Rivolta want with him?" Alex asked.

"They wanted to use him as a weapon," Emily explained, shaking her head "But by the time we got to him again, they'd turned him,"

A knock at the door interrupted, making all agents turn to the source "Coulson, Talbot wants a word with you,"

"May, I'm sort of busy," he said, hoping she'd take care of the General for him, but she was pissed at him so there was no such luck.

"Why don't you go tell him that?" May responded, leaving no room for challenge "He's in the hangar,"

Coulson sighed "Excuse me, Agents," he addressed the team, before leaving.

"Emily Prentiss," May smiled slightly, approaching the taller woman slowly "And here I thought I'd never see you again,"

Emily lunged to wrap the older woman in a hug, May stiffening automatically "I'm not letting go until you hug me back,"

"Emily..."

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you," Emily replied, waiting until she felt slender arms wrap around her for a few seconds before letting go "It's good to see you,"

"You too," May replied before turning towards the team of agents left in the room.

"Agent May, meet the BAU," Emily introduced "This woman has saved my ass more times than I will ever admit to,"

"And she needed it too," May replied "The most stubborn human being I have ever met,"

JJ snorted "Yeah, that sounds familiar,"

"I am not stubborn," Emily shook her head "And nothing will ever change my mind of that," she joked, making May roll her eyes with a small grin.

"Well we need your help trying to figure out what Mills is doing," May continued, sobering the conversation "We know who and what, we just don't know why. You figure that out and we can stop him,"

"What sort of powers does this guy have anyway?" Rossi asked.

"Telekinesis," said Emily.

"Even to this day, it's the strongest form of telekinesis we've ever seen," May continued "So all we need you to do is find him, and we'll handle the rest,"

"How many agents you got working on this?" Emily asked.

"We've got all our trained field operatives working on it," May replied before looking at her watch "They should all be downstairs waiting to be briefed right about now," she said and gestured for them to all follow her downstairs.

"And how many of them know who I am exactly?" Emily asked, not exactly wanting the rumors to be spread around.

"Pretty much all of them," May replied, making Emily sigh. Great. "They're professional, don't worry,"

* * *

Whilst Coulson was off talking to Talbot, May briefed all the agents on what the FBI were doing there and how they intended to find Mills. A couple people looked like they knew who Emily Prentiss was, but there were others who had no clue, and probably couldn't care less. Emily recognized a few faces in the crowd, but less than she expected.

She expected more of her old friends to have stayed loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D, and she was devastated to hear that more hadn't made it out alive. Either way, it was hard to come to terms with. An empire had fallen to it's knees.

The BAU stood in with the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, as May stood in front of the holographic poles and everyone else asked questions.

"We've handled worse," a young woman, Emily guessed mid-twenties, pointed out "Why is this guy so special?"

"Because he had no cause," Emily explained, making everyone look at her "Mills was a kid whose world had crumbled, he didn't know right from wrong, we tried pointing him in the right direction, but after La Rivolta got their hands on him he turned almost psychopathic,"

"So he was brainwashed," Trip added.

"Possibly," May replied "But we don't really know what happened to him,"

"What we do know is that he's one of the most dangerous beings S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever come into contact with," Emily said.

"He's not a 'being'," the young woman said, crossing her arms over her chest, frowning "He's a person,"

"He's ripping women apart from the inside," Morgan shot back "Even if he wasn't a freak of nature before, there's no way this guy can be classified as a person now,"

The girl almost looked winded, like it was personal "The point is," May jumped in "Mills is a very intelligent, extremely powerful force, we need to be overly careful with this op. Agent Prentiss will run point,"

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked.

"You know him better than anyone," May responded "He's your enhanced, your mission,"

"She's not even S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore," the girl frowned in protest.

"Prentiss will take point, Daisy," May gave her a look that silenced her instantly "This is coming from the director himself, you have a problem with that, then speak to him,"

"I have a problem with that," Emily spoke up, frowning "She's right, I haven't been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for ten years, everything's completely different now,"

"Every agent in this room has something to learn from you," May said, taking a step towards her "You'll take point, Zhànshì." she lowered her voice "Liǎojiě?"

_Zhànshì...Warrior_. May had called her that, ever since she took her under her wing. She hadn't heard it in years, but she knew she was never to argue when May spoke to her in Mandarin. So she nodded and repeated.

"Understood."

* * *

"Max Mills, grew up in California, graduated high school at the age of 16," JJ read from the file that S.H.I.E.L.D. shared around with the agents that sat around the table, along with Daisy and Trip "At the age of 17, he went through..." JJ paused as she looked up "Terrigenesis?"

"The transitional change from human to inhuman," Daisy spoke up, not looking up from her laptop.

"Okay..." JJ said, looking back at the file "Started experiencing superhuman abilities, such as being able to move objects with his mind. Under rigorous testing, Agents Prentiss and Hill came to the conclusion that he was, in fact, telekinetic."

"After three months of working with Mills, it had become apparent that he was only getting stronger and stronger, and less controllable..." Rossi read the report attached "Five months on, the 'redacted location' was infiltrated and Mills had escaped,"

"You mean kidnapped," Daisy said, still not looking up from her laptop.

"At the time, it looked like he'd escaped," Emily replied, making Daisy finally look at her.

"Why? Because he's a freak of nature?" she dead-eyed Morgan, who put his hands up in defense, before she looked at Emily again "Because he's different, so that automatically makes him the bad guy?"

Emily's eye twitched slightly, trying to figure out what the hell was happening right now "No, we thought he escaped because the cameras were ripped off the walls and every agent around his room was hanging mid-air, unconscious,"

Daisy held her gaze for a few more moments before going back to her laptop, not saying another word, leaving everyone in the room a little baffled.

"Okay, well," Trip jumped in quickly, catching everyone's attention again "How did you figure out that it wasn't an escape?"

"We found a device that they'd left behind, technology we'd never seen before," Emily replied "It was like this giant magnet that they'd hidden inside Mills' bunk, and when activated, it ripped the surrounding cameras out of the wall,"

"And the...floating agents?" Alex asked, not really sure how to put it.

"La Rivolta had used one of our own devices against us, one that made him lose control of his powers," Emily explained "Everything he saw or passed would, in turn, levitate,"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. created a device to make in inhuman lose control?" Daisy asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"No, the device was to create involuntary muscle spasms," Emily corrected her "However, when it came to Max's particular powers, he would lose complete control,"

"And the device they left behind led you to La Rivolta?" Rossi asked, frowning.

"Yeah," Emily nodded "We'd dealt with them before, so we knew their technology,"

"Extremely careless of them," Hotch said, which was pretty much the first thing he had said to her since this whole thing started.

Emily nodded "Which is how we knew we were walking into a trap," she replied, the shrugged a little "But we had to risk it anyway,"

"What happened when you went in?" Reid asked.

"They got to him," Emily pointed out "He took out five of our agents, the rest of us barely made it out,"

Emily put her hand up in the air as Daisy opened her mouth again, silencing her before she had a chance to speak "We don't know if he was brainwashed," she said, already knowing the girl was going to come to his defense "All we know is that he was a threat to all of us," Daisy closed her mouth, not bothering with the argument "We managed to contain him, but after that he became catatonic, which is why we still don't know what happened to him in there,"

"So, let me get this straight..." Morgan started, standing from his chair to roam around the room as he spoke "You find a kid with mind control, take him in, he gets kidnapped, possibly brainwashed and turned evil, you go in to a known trap trying to save him and he ends up killing a bunch of agents,"

Morgan continued "Followed by you locking him up and he's forced into a catatonic state,"

"So how does he get out?" Hotch asked "You said he was catatonic, how did he escape S.H.I.E.L.D. custody?"

"That's a good question," Emily folded her arms over her chest as she looked toward the two younger agents for answers.

Daisy and Trip looked at each other before Trip spoke up "A couple of double agents raided our containment facility, releasing all our prisoners,"

"How does that happen?" Emily asked "The Fridge is the most secured base S.H.I.E.L.D. has, it had protocols in place so nothing like this could happen,"

"And they knew them," Daisy said, her voice rising slightly "We were betrayed before we even knew what was happening,"

Emily scoffed, shaking her head as she stood up "You work for S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Johnson, get used to it," she said before she muttered something about getting fresh air as she walked out.

She walked through the base until she found herself somewhere alone. It was a few moments until she felt someone next to her. She didn't look across to see who it was, she didn't have to.

"Wanna go a few rounds?" May asked "You could probably use the practice,"

Emily glared at her, making the agent smirk at her, but followed her as she led her towards the training room anyway.

* * *

Daisy watched as May and Agent Prentiss trained in the gym, ignoring the pang of jealousy that had been in her gut ever since she watched the two interact.

Agent Prentiss may have been out of S.H.I.E.L.D. a while but she seemed to be handling herself. The story around the base was that she was one of the greatest operatives they'd ever seen, next to Romanoff, Bobbi and Hill. She was a household name. It was intimidating, especially now that she was back.

She felt someone stand next to her, so she looked over to see another agent, Hotchner, watching the two in the gym. They stayed there for a moment before Daisy finally spoke.

"It's intimidating," Hotch looked over at her, puzzled, making her continue "Having her here,"

Hotch nodded "That's why you've been so defensive,"

"She's a lot to live up to," Daisy explained "Emily Prentiss, _The Dragon_...I've heard the stories, you kind of think they're myths until she's standing right in front of you,"

"The Dragon?" Hotch asked.

Before Daisy could answer, neither she or Hotch noticed May standing by the door of the gym "Don't ever call her that," and with that, she walked off.

A few moments later, Emily came out of the gym too, a towel around the back of her neck and a water bottle in her hand "What's going on?"

"If you're done venting, we're ready to get back to it," Hotch said simply and walked off, making her sigh.

"I guess he didn't take the whole super-spy thing well, did he?" Daisy said after a few moments passed.

Emily scoffed, shaking her head 'no'. Daisy just nodded to her and went to walk past her, before Emily put a gentle hand on her arm, stopping her.

"Agent Johnson," she started "I just wanted to apologize, for earlier," Daisy looked at her quizzically "Look, I know it's not easy to be betrayed, and I'm sorry for implying-"

"It's okay," Daisy cut her off "Besides, I wasn't exactly making it easy for you in there,"

"Yeah, well, it's natural for you to be defensive," Emily said, making Daisy pause, waiting for her to explain "You're an inhuman, right?"

Daisy sucked in a deep breath "May told you,"

Emily shook her head "She didn't have to,"

"Are you going to tell your team?" Daisy asked, and Emily could see her stiffen slightly.

"I think they've had enough to process for one day," Emily said, making the girl visibly relax "C'mon, let's get back to it,"


	5. Motherly Love

He kept away from her at all times, every time she came near, he would walk away. She wanted to scream at him, tell him she's sorry but she can't change who she was. Tell him that he's being childish. But then she thinks of all the times he opened up to her in a way he never would normally. How much he trusts her.

So she just sighs internally and puts up with it.

The rest of the team notices it too, and it's unsettling them all. They're all agitated, on edge, and Emily wishes there's something she can do to make it better but at the end of the day, they need to come to terms with everything on their own, and she just has to wait.

"Did S.H.I.E.L.D. try and find him after he escaped?" Emily asked.

"Of course," Daisy said "But we had dozens of escapees and the our entire organisation was the size of your team,"

"Knowing Garrett, he would've stashed his assets somewhere," Emily said "And he took way too much interest in Mills for it to be a coincidence,"

"What kind of interest?" asked Alex.

"Checking in all the time, asking questions about his powers; if he was getting stronger, could he control them...that sort of thing," Emily explained "At first it seems like professional curiosity but now that we knew he was working for Hydra, it seems obvious that it wasn't,"

"So what's his endgame?" Trip asked "I mean, he could do anything he wanted, why kill these women?"

"They're surrogates," Rossi said.

"For who?" Daisy asked.

The room was silent, and all eyes fell on Emily. The victims were dead-ringers for her. Brown eyes, raven hair, porcelain skin. The only difference would be their age.

"But these women are closer to my age than they are to yours," Daisy pointed out.

"I was 21 when I met him," said Emily.

"How much time did you spend with him?" asked JJ.

Emily thought back "I'd visit almost every day,"

"Why?" Hotch asked.

"Because I was the one that brought him in, I convinced him to come in with us," Emily explained and suddenly, realization struck "I was the one who locked him up," she said "I'm the one that destroyed is life,"

"He might be looking for revenge," Rossi said "It's a lot of rage,"

"So where do we go from here?" asked Trip, catching her attention "We know what he wants, so how do we find him?"

"We keep looking until we find something,"

* * *

They had been searching all day, and nothing. After Mills escaped custody, there was no trace of him anywhere. Nothing was in his name, there were no reports of an inhuman that suggested him and they were running out of options.

They had three days or less before he killed another woman.

May, Coulson and Hill had joined in with the hunt once they were done dealing with the General, but still nothing.

Eventually Emily had to call it "Okay guys, let's call it a night, get some rest and we'll start fresh tomorrow," she said.

One by one, everyone filed out of the room, before it was Emily and Hotch left. This was the first time all day that he hadn't scurried away from her, so she tried not to spook him.

"Hotch," she said softly. He stopped moving, but didn't look at her "I'm sorry,"

Hotch nodded, still not meeting her eyes "Yeah," he responded "Me too," and then he walked out, leaving her there by herself.

Emily sighed and bowed her head as she lent forward on the table, pressing her palms flat on the surface as she stood. She stood like that for a moment before she felt a hand on her back. She almost flinched, but she knew that hand. So she slowly stood to face the owner.

"You seem glum," Maria said, her body a little close to be friendly.

"Long day," Emily replied.

"We could go a few rounds, like old times," Maria suggested.

"I already took May up on that offer," said Emily.

Maria moved closer to her and lowered her voice as her hand came up to play with the bottom of Emily's top "They weren't the rounds I was thinking of,"

Her lips pressed onto Emily's softly, and her eyes fell shut. The kiss was familial, comfortable, like they'd done a hundred times. Emily's hand came up to tangle in the other woman's hair, pulling her in. But then, she felt Maria's fingers slip under her shirt and slide up her back, making her pull away.

"As fun as that would be," Emily said as she moved her hand from the other woman's hair to her hip "I know you only do this when you're running from something, and I'm not helping you do that anymore,"

Maria instantly sighed and Emily cocked her head to the side "What's going on?"

"Nothing, I just..." Maria shook her head "What if we don't get to Mills before he gets another girl?"

"We will,"

"How do you know?"

"Because I have faith in my team," Emily said and Maria looked at her.

"They just look so much like you," she breathed out.

Emily looked at her for a moment before she leaned in and gave her a chaste, lingering kiss "They're not me," she whispered "I'm fine, I'm right here,"

"Just...make sure it stays that way," Maria said.

Emily gave her a reassuring smile "I'll be fine," she said and lifted her hand up to Maria's face, tucking her hair behind her ear "Get some sleep, we'll start fresh tomorrow,"

Maria leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Emily's cheek, letting it linger for a moment before she pulled away. She gave her one last smile before Maria stepped back and turned to walk out of the room.

Emily sighed. This was one big ol' mess.

* * *

"You think she's okay?" Phil asked May as he sat on the kitchen stool across from her and she stood at the counter with a mug of tea.

May shrugged slightly "She's Emily,"

Phil snorted and May slid over a mug for him "Yeah, well, Daisy seems a little stand-offish,"

"She's just defensive," May said "It can't be easy, hunting an inhuman,"

"I just think she might be a bit jealous," said Phil, making Melinda raise an eyebrow at him.

"Of Emily?"

"Of you and Emily,"

"Phil, that's ridiculous," May rolled her eyes.

"Is it?" asked Phil and May paused, holding his gaze "She loves you,"

"No, she looks up to me-"

"No, May, she loves you," Phil cut her short "Don't get me wrong, they all do, but Daisy..."

They fell into a silence, May not really knowing what to say. So they just sat there in a comfortable silence. Until a few minutes later, Daisy walked into the kitchen too.

"What are you guys talkin' about?" she asked as she went straight for the fridge, pulling out a bottle of water.

"The chicken or the egg," Phil said and Daisy raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not even gonna go there," Daisy replied as she saddled up next to May, leaning forward on her elbows as she stood.

"Couldn't sleep?" May asked her, using her free hand to sweep the girl's hair behind her shoulders considering it was finally long enough again.

Daisy shook her head "We've seen a lot of things, but this is something else entirely,"

"We'll catch him," Phil said and Daisy nodded.

Suddenly May slid over her mug of tea "Drink, Xiǎo yā,"

Phil looked at May and suppressed his smile, knowing he would pay for it later if he didn't. Daisy looked at her quizzically.

"It's just tea, it'll help you sleep," May assured her.

Daisy nodded and took a sip of the hot drink before looking over at her mentor again "Do you think you could teach me Mandarin?" she asked and May failed to completely mask the look of surprise that came over her "I mean, after the case of course, but I mean I never learnt and I am Chinese after all," Daisy started to ramble as she shifted on her feet, making Phil grin and May look at the girl warmly.

"You don't have to-never mind, it was a dumb idea anyway," she looked down at the mug on the bench.

"I think that's a great idea," May said softly, making Daisy's eyes snap to hers.

"Really?" Daisy asked, full of hope.

May gave her a warm smile "I'd love to teach you,"

Daisy broke out into a grin and wrapped her arms around the woman's neck, startling her slightly. Before May could unfreeze and reciprocate, the girl snapped out of it and pulled away quickly, her eyes wide.

"I'm sorry, uh, I'm just gonna go to bed," Daisy said as she started to back out "G'night,"

"Goodnight, Xiǎo yā," May said softly as Daisy exited the kitchen. She didn't have to look at Phil to know he was grinning like an idiot "What?"

"Nothing, except that you just called her ' _duckling_ '," he said, sipping his tea before he added "Twice,"

_"Shut up,"_

* * *

The next morning, Daisy was up for Tai Chi with May, just like every morning. Only this time, when she got to the gym where they normally train, Agent Prentiss was in there as well. And yet again, she felt a pang in her gut. This was normally the time she got alone with May, a mother-daughter bonding time, if you will. But then that was stupid, May was her S.O., not her mother and she had to stop thinking this way.

"Ah," Emily said as she saw the young agent "She roped you into 5 am starts too, did she?"

Daisy snapped out of her self-pity, and chuckled "Looks like it," she said and padded her way onto the mats alongside May.

"Once you do this for ten years of your life, you never really stop," Emily continued.

"You still do it?" Daisy asked her, hoping she would be able to continue without May around, although she hoped that would be a very, very long way away.

"Not every day, but most days,"

"Zhànshì, stop distracting her," May said as she started, her arms gliding through the air gracefully.

Emily smirked as she winked at the younger agent, only for her to give her a smile in return as they followed May's lead.

"I'm here, I'm here," Maria jogged in, dumping her gym bag on the ground as she ran to stand beside Emily.

"You're always the last one here," Emily hissed at her.

"Well it's not my fault I'm not a morning person," Maria grumbled as she followed the movements along.

"Yes it is," Emily replied.

"Xiǎo dōngxī!" May scolded the both of them "Be quiet or leave,"

Daisy bit back her smile. Whoever said that May wasn't the mother-type, clearly has never seen her around her previous students. Maybe training wouldn't be as bad as she thought.

* * *

Later that morning, everyone rose and returned to the room where they had been working the day before. Hotch didn't avoid Emily like the plague anymore but he wasn't talking to her either. This was going to be a long battle.

She understood it really, she didn't blame him.

"So if Garrett was stashing him somewhere it would probably be somewhere he could easily access him," Maria said.

"We mainly worked out of the Hub, but he always had a quinjet on standby," Trip added, folding his arms across his chest.

"So he could basically keep him anywhere in the world and be able to access him," Daisy added.

"Pretty much," said Emily, sighing as she threw the file she had in her hand on the table before running fingers through her hair "This is getting us nowhere,"

"Keep looking," said Coulson "We brought you here so you could find things that we couldn't,"

"What are we missing?" JJ asked "There's gotta be something we've overlooked,"

The room was silent for a moment, thinking of the things they'd been over and ruled out. Until Emily snapped her fingers, catching everyone's attention.

"His parents," said Emily, leaning forward in her chair.

"They were supportive of him," Maria said, and Emily nodded.

"Yeah, they were," Emily said "But that was before we brought him in, after they found out what he could do, they cut themselves off,"

Maria closed her eyes and sighed as she realized "He was convinced we were keeping him from them,"

"If he was convinced that you were keeping his parents from him, the first thing he's gonna want to do is find them," Alex added "If he found out that his parents didn't want him, that's probably what made him snap,"

"That could very well be our stressor," said Rossi.

"That, combined with being imprisoned for years, not being able to use his abilities," Morgan said "It would have made him lose control,"

"We need to get to the Mills family, right now," Emily said and looked over at the tech "Garcia, can you get us that address?"

Garcia nodded "Of course, I'll send it to you,"

"Okay, Agent Coulson, may I borrow Agents May and Johnson?" she asked the director.

Coulson put his hands up in the air "You're running the show,"

Emily nodded before she looked toward Hotch, asking a silent question, to which he just nodded in return "Okay, Blake, Morgan, let's go,"

* * *

"Agent Prentiss?" Daisy asked as they were strapped into the quinjet, no one had really spoken except for Emily devising a plan. The two were sitting next to each other, May was in the cockpit and Morgan and Alex sat across from them. Emily looked across at her expectantly "How long have you known May?"

"Twenty years,"

"And she was your S.O.?"

"Yeah, she was," Emily smiled slightly.

Daisy nodded and looked away, and Emily knew the questions were for a reason, but she didn't push it. They stayed in silence for a while, before Daisy turned back do her and whispered "What does 'Xiǎo yā' mean?"

* * *

They got to the house a couple hours later. Emily walked up to the house, the rest of the agents surrounding the premises. They figured that this would go smoother if they had a familiar face.

Emily knocked on the door to the house "Mr and Mrs Mills?" she called out. She couldn't hear anything, so she peered through the window. At first she couldn't see anything, but when she took a closer look, she could see blood on the walls.

Her eyes went wide as she drew her gun "I'm going in," she said through her comms.

_"Wait for us,"_

But Emily knew that if he was in there, he wouldn't be for long. So she kicked down the door and stormed in, gun raised. Right away, the odor was horrendous. She cleared the rooms, one-by-one, until she got to the kitchen and saw two bodies that had been ripped apart.

"Jesus Christ," Morgan said as he and Alex came up next to her and saw the bodies.

"House is clear, no sign of him," Emily said "This was done a while ago,"

"Oh, my God," Daisy cried out and May put her hands on the girl's shoulders, guiding her out of the kitchen and out of the house to get some fresh air.

Just as they reached outside, Daisy threw up in the bushes to the side of the porch. May didn't say anything, she just pulled her hair from her face and rubbed soothing circles on her back.

A few moments later Emily came out, trailed by Morgan and Alex "You should've waited for us,"

"I had it under control," Emily said.

"You had no idea what was in there, you could've been walking into a trap!" Morgan yelled.

"Then I would've dealt with that when it came to it," Emily replied.

Morgan looked at her in disbelief "Are you kidding me?" he asked her "We should've been there with you,"

"Why? So you could be the hero, Derek?" she spun around to face him "Always gotta be the tough guy, first one through the door!"

"I'm not the one blindly running into houses without backup!" he retorted "Do you remember the last time you went rogue, Prentiss? Because I do, I remember watching you die like it was yesterday!"

Emily looked like he'd just gut-punched her "That's not fair,"

"Isn't it?" Morgan asked "Because this is what you do, Emily, you do things on your own whether we like it or not,"

"Yeah, well, in my experience you can't rely on other people to get you out, only you can do that," she said, making him shake his head.

He continued "You say that I have to be the hero, but you're the one that won't trust us to help you,"

"That's not-"

"You know what? Whatever, I'm done," he said as he started to walk past her "Do what you want Emily, you always do,"

Emily sighed as Derek stalked back to the quinjet, pinching the bridge of her nose. He wasn't wrong, she knows that. When she finally looked at Alex, she was surprised that there was no anger or judgement in her eyes.

"I know that you're used to doing things alone," she said "But you don't have to anymore, we're here with you until the end of the line," and that was all she said before she walked past her, trailing behind Morgan back to the jet.

Emily looked over at May and Daisy, the latter who was sitting on the rail of the porch, May still rubbing circles on her back. Daisy had her eyes closed, comforted by May's hand. But May was looking at her, and she knew that look.

She fucked up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What May yells at Emily and Maria is 'little ones' in Mandarin. I've been using google translate so I apologise if any of it is wrong.


	6. The Kids and the Ducklings

Daisy sat in the co-pilots seat on the way home. It made her feel safe, sitting across from May, just like she did on the Bus. She sat with her knees up to her chest, her head lulling against the back of the seat as she started to fall asleep.

May looked over at the sleeping agent as she drifted off. Daisy had a hard time with seeing the bodies. It's not like she's never seen a body before, or killed anyone for that matter. But this was a whole other level for her to process. Daisy, the girl who yelled at her for shooting a woman with an ICER. Daisy, who sees the good in people, even after the _hell_ life put her through.

It doesn't surprise her that she's struggling. Hell, May is too.

She thought about what Coulson said, that Daisy loved her. She would never admit this if asked about it, but the statement had got her hopes up. Melinda knew that it was dangerous thinking, but she thought that if she were to ever have a kid, they would be exactly like Daisy.

The problem is she didn't want a kid 'exactly like Daisy'. She wanted Daisy.

But May was the furthest thing from a mother that Daisy would want. The mother that Daisy would want would be kind, and warm, and they would do each other's hair or some bullshit. That's the kind of mother Daisy deserved.

Not her tragedy of an existence.

Jiaying had been everything May was not. Warm, kind, gentle. She would've been perfect for Daisy.

...had she not been a psychopath that tried to kill her own daughter.

But having Daisy here and safe is enough. Watching her grow into an independent, fully capable agent fills her with pride. The same way it filled her with pride when Jemma pulled Fitz from the water, or when Fitz pulled Jemma through time and space from another dimension.

It's the same pride that filled her when Maria made Deputy Director, or when Emily successfully completed her first mission without her.

May looked over at the sleeping girl in the co-pilots seat and smiled. She'll have to give her the day off of training tomorrow.

Yeah, having her here and safe is enough.

* * *

Hotch wasn't talking to her, and now Morgan wasn't either. She was getting frustrated, only it wasn't with them. She was the one that kept doing this to them, to herself really.

"You know, you could always come back," May said as they exited the hangar "Coulson would chop off his right hand to make it happen,"

Emily snorted but shook her head "I was so worried about what they'd think of me if they knew what I had done or who I was, but that's not what's making them angry,"

"It's the fact you lied to them about it," said May, knowing full well that when she lied to Coulson about keeping an eye on him for Fury, it hadn't gone down well "Yeah, that usually doesn't work out,"

"They might not want me there after this," Emily said "I'm thinking coming back might not be such a bad idea,"

"You could help me train the new agents," said May.

Emily chuckled as they walked along "You know, Daisy's a good one,"

"I know she is," May replied.

"It might not hurt to tell her that," Emily added "She looks up to you,"

"I'm her S.O." May stated.

Emily rolled her eyes "Yes, but there's more to it," she said "You're more than just an S.O. to her, and I think she's more than an agent to you,"

"Yeah, well," May started "Life doesn't work out the way you want it to,"

Emily sighed "That's for damn sure,"

* * *

All the agents spent the rest of the day going over the case files, trying to find something that would lead to the whereabouts of Mills. But it was getting to 11 o'clock that night and they still had nothing.

There was no paper trail that was gonna lead them to him, so they would have to rely solely on their profile. Which was proving harder than usual.

Emily and Coulson sent everyone away again, Coulson following close behind, and Emily sat at the table, staring. She was staring at the board with all the victims. She was staring at the case files looking for a trail. She was just staring.

"You know, you should take your own advice, get some sleep," Rossi.

She looked up at the older man as he stood in the doorway.

"Yeah, well, I got us in this mess, the least I could do is get us out," Emily sighed, leaning back in her chair.

"Contrary to popular belief," Rossi said as he came to sit in the chair next to her "You don't have to do everything alone,"

Emily was about to argue, but decided against it. Instead, she asked "Why aren't you mad at me?"

"Oh, I'm mad," he said "Just not for the reasons you may think," Emily paused, waiting for him to continue as she furrowed her eyebrows "I'm mad because you're the same woman who came to me years ago, refusing to let me deal with my unfinished business, yet here you are, blaming yourself and refusing to let anyone help you,"

Rossi continued "I'm mad because your sole purpose in life so far, and will continue to be, to protect everyone else, but you won't include yourself on that list," Emily sighed, she knew he was right "And I'm also mad that you think we would think any less of you if we found out about who you were,"

"I'm not who you think I am," Emily said quietly, her voice wavering slightly.

"No, we know who you are," Rossi replied "You're frustratingly stubborn, and you're annoyingly pessimistic, and you think you can give something like coffee up, but you really can't because then you turn cranky and start hitting people unnecessarily," he started, making Emily let out a huff of a laugh "And you're the most loyal, caring, and kindhearted person I have ever had the honor of knowing, and not only call my friend, but my family,"

Emily let a tear roll down her cheek as she closed her eyes.

"You can try and do things alone all you want, but we'll never let you do it," Rossi said and she felt him grab onto her hand "You crazy-ass, stubborn woman,"

Emily let out a bark of laughter and Rossi leaned over to press a light kiss to her cheek "Get some sleep, Bella," he said "We'll do better tomorrow,"

And with that, he stood up and walked to the door "Dave," she stopped him, and he turned back to face her "Thank you,"

"Anytime,"

* * *

"I think we may have a shot at getting her back," Melinda said as she put their mugs in the dishwasher.

"Really?" Phil looked surprised "What do we have to do?"

"It's not about us," she replied and they started to make their way from the kitchen and up the stairs.

"Oh," said Phil "So she doesn't actually want to come back, we're her last resort,"

"Phil, don't be so dramatic," Melinda replied, bumping her shoulder with his as they made their way down the hall "She's just dealing with a lot right now, she didn't ever want to come back here, you know that,"

"She might if we got a pool," Phil grumbled.

"We're not getting a pool," she said, rolling her eyes "What exactly would we even do with a pool anyway?"

"Swim,"

"You hate swimming,"

"Well I might not if we got one," Phil shot back and Melinda chuckled at him before she grabbed his arm, stopping them and making him turn to her.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. is rebuilding, and I think we're doing okay," she assured him "And even if everyone leaves you, you'll still have me," she joked.

Phil didn't laugh though "Yeah, I do," he said "You never left my side,"

"And I never will," Melinda replied, her eyebrows furrowing "Phil, we're gonna be okay, we've got the new recruits and the kids and each oth-"

"I'm sorry, what?" his eyebrows rose, taking a step closer to her "The _what_?"

Melinda's eyes went wide for a fraction of a second, and if you blinked, you would've missed it "You know what I meant,"

"No, no, no," Phil said, backing her into her door as he kept taking steps towards her "You said kids, you said 'the kids', that's what you said,"

"Okay, fine, I said 'the kids', so what? They _are_ kids," Melinda replied.

"That's not what you meant though," Phil grinned.

"Phil..." Melinda whined, and Phil thought she might stomp her foot. He loved this side of her, the side he could make fun of, the side that allowed her to whine. Melinda doesn't whine.

Phil just smiled at her, but it slowly faded and he almost looked sad "They're pretty great kids, aren't they?"

"Yeah, they are," Melinda replied and put her hand on his bicep, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Do you ever think about it?" Phil asked her "Not having kids?"

Melinda paused before nodding "Sometimes," she said softly "But then I look over at them and I know that they're all I need,"

"Are they?" Phil held her gaze and she didn't answer. He leaned closer to her, close enough for her to close the gap, but far enough away that she could push him away. He honestly didn't know what she was going to do, until she did the former.

Melinda leaned up and pressed her lips to his gently, lingering for a moment before pulling away. He looked into her eyes, which were shining, and he lent down to kiss her more passionately. His hand came up to tangle in her hair as she fisted the front of his shirt.

Soon they were full on making out like teenagers against her door as she fumbled with the doorknob, trying to let them in. As she got it open, they made their way over to the bed, never losing contact until the backs of her knees his the bed and she pulled them both down on top of it.

Phil kicked his shoes off and so did Melinda as they started undressing each other, their lips only separating when taking their shirts off.

All of a sudden they were only in their underwear and Phil looked straight into her eyes "Are you sure about this?"

Melinda just looked at him warmly, giving him a smile and pulled him in for another sensuous kiss. She was definitely sure.

* * *

The next morning, May woke up at her usual 4:50 am, giving her time to get dressed and get to the gym for her morning session. Only this time, she was naked, and was lying next to her best friend...who was also naked. She laid there for a moment, Phil faced away from her, as she remembered the night before and smiled softly to herself.

She was about to get up to start Tai Chi when she heard a grumble next to her "Skip it," was all he said and she chuckled softly. He rolled over and wrapped his arm around her torso, kissing her shoulder before nuzzling it "You gave Daisy the day off, you should too,"

"I really should get up," Melinda replied as he lifted his head to finally look at her.

"And leave me naked and vulnerable in bed? What if someone were to attack me?" he asked "Who would protect me?"

Melinda laughed "You are such a dork," she said, making him smile as he cupped her jaw and kissed her.

When he finally pulled back he tucked her hair behind her ear "Stay,"

Melinda sighed as she could feel her walls crumbling already "Okay," she said and gave him one last sweet kiss before they settled back down under the covers, drifting back to sleep.

* * *

"I think I found him," Garcia said as they all came into the room. She had been there for a couple of hours already, Daisy next to her.

"What? Where? How?" Emily asked as she took a seat across from her.

"In Manhattan," Garcia replied "I used S.H.I.E.L.D's facial recognition software to try and find him and only got three hits, all on the same camera," she explained "And it turns out there's a hotel three blocks from there, so Daisy and I hacked into their servers and found there was a room booked under the Peels Ministry. And I was like, hmm, sounds a bit fake,"

"So I did some digging," Daisy jumped in "The Peels Ministry is a religious group and the website looks legit but there's no links, so addresses, no other names, just word of God,"

"So, it's fake," said Emily, making Daisy and Garcia nod simultaneously.

"How do we know it's him?" May asked.

"It's an anagram," Reid said as he grabbed a piece of paper and started writing until the words 'Peels Ministry' became another.

Reid held up the paper, showing everyone what was written on it.

_Emily Prentiss._

"That's a lot of effort to make a point," said Emily "How long ago did he check in?"

"Three weeks ago," Garcia said.

Emily shook her head "It's too easy,"

"What do you mean?" Coulson asked, folding his arms over his chest.

"He's gone undetected for years, ever since he escaped The Fridge," she started to explain "He knows how to keep off the radar, but then going and using my name in an anagram at a hotel that keeps digital records?"

"He could've gone to a motel, where they don't ask for I.D. and don't ask any questions," Rossi added "Instead, he's making it glaringly obvious that he's here,"

"So what do we do?" Trip asked, and the room fell silent as everyone looked to Emily.

Emily blew out a deep breath, shaking her head slightly as she thought about it "We gotta take the chance,"

"And what happens if it's a trap?" Morgan asked.

"It probably is, and we don't have a lot of options," Emily responded "But that doesn't mean we go without precautions, we don't take in anything that can be used against us,"

"I've had FitzSimmons working on something that can keep his powers under control until we can get him into the containment module," Coulson said.

"So we're supposed to go in there unarmed?" asked Daisy "Isn't that a bit risky?"

"I never said unarmed," Emily responded before looking over at May "How many of those fancy ICERs you got lyin' around?"

"Enough," May responded and Emily nodded.

"This way no one gets hurt, and our own bullets can't be used against us if things get ugly," Emily explained before turning to Garcia and Daisy "Can either of you get us the blueprints to the building?"

"I'm offended you would even ask that," Garcia responded as she turned back to her laptop and started working away.

Emily suppressed a smile as she turned to the rest of her team "I can't have you guys in there,"

All of a sudden, they all started talking to her at once.

"Are you kidding me?"

"You're insane if you think that's going to happen,"

"What did we _just_ talk about?"

Emily waited until they'd all stopped talking before she continued "You've done your job, now let us do ours,"

"You? Us?" asked Morgan, his eyebrows raised "What, are you one of them now?"

"I'm trained for this," said Emily, her voice getting louder "You're not, and that is _not_ a risk I'm willing to take,"

"Emily..."

"You'll be a part of the mission," Emily said "I need you in my ear, noticing things I might not notice on the ground,"

"And let you get killed?" Hotch asked, making Emily's jaw clench.

"I can take care of myself," Emily ground out, making the entire team look at her. She never spoke like that, and she definitely never spoke like that to Hotch "This isn't up for discussion,"

The room was silent, no one dared speaking a word. Emily wasn't one to get angry at her team, and if you were to face of with her like this, you would most probably lose.

"Get the plane ready, we leave in 20,"

* * *

The team watched as Emily boarded the Zephyr with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

"Are we going to lose her after this?" JJ asked, her arms folded over her chest "Again?"

"She was thinking of returning to this place," Rossi said "I heard her talking to Agent May yesterday,"

"If she doesn't want to be in the BAU, we can't make her stay," Hotch said, ignoring the twisting feeling in his stomach.

"Of course she wants to stay, Aaron," Rossi said "But right now, you bunch of jackasses aren't making her feel welcome. So if you want her around, cut it out,"

"She lied to us," said Reid "Again,"

"Maybe so," Alex said "But she may very well get killed out there and you're making it out to be like she's got nothing to lose, you think that's a good thing?"

The team stood there as Emily started to walk over to them. Alex was right, if Emily was going up a inhuman that they couldn't control, they very well may lose her again. For good this time.

"So, I'll have my comms in the whole time," Emily said "I need you to watch and listen, it's gonna be high tensions out there so I might miss some things,"

"You look like a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," said JJ quietly, and Emily looked down at her outfit. Coulson had held onto her uniform and weapons. She thought she'd lost them, but he always was the sentimental type.

She had a black S.H.I.E.L.D jacket with the eagle on the back and sleeves, and matching pants. She had an ICER strapped one thigh and nunchucks strapped to the other with black, leather finger-less gloves on both hands.

"Right now I _am_ one," said Emily as she shifted on her feet, and the team knew she didn't just mean the mission.

The team fell into an awkward silence and Hotch cleared his throat "Just make sure you come back to us,"

Emily looked at him for a moment before she heard May yell to her "Zhànshì!" her head zipped round to her old S.O. and nodded before turning back to her team.

"I guess I'll see you guys on the other side," Emily said and turned to walk to the Zephyr, giving them one last look before she disappeared up the ramp.

"Come home, Bella," Rossi muttered.

* * *

"Everything okay?" May asked her as they stood on the platform overlooking the controls of Zephyr One.

Emily sighed "Oh, you know, my team hates me, and I'm actually thinking about going back to the place I've hated for the last decade,"

"You know, you never talk about what happened," May said.

"Neither do you,"

"Touche,"

"It's a long story," Emily replied after a moment.

May nodded, knowing that was all she was going to get out of her "It was a child," she said suddenly, making Emily look over at her, her eyebrows furrowed "In Bahrain,"

"Yeah, she was caught in the crossfire, I know," said Emily.

May shook her head "No she wasn't,"

May looked away from her, and Emily's eyes sparked with realization "You did what you had to do,"

"I know I did," said May "But what I'm trying to say is, the story is always different to the real thing,"

"What is the story anyway?" Emily asked.

"You spent a month in the Russian winter, killing forty hostiles people with nothing but a box of matches," May said, and she didn't have to look at Emily to know that she had a look on her face that said...

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Emily asked out loud and May smirked, shrugging a little "Ugh, how does it even get that big anyway,"

"You never told anyone the story, so people put snippets together and filled in the blanks," said May "Happened to me too,"

"How do you kill someone with a box of matches anyway-oh, wait," Emily stopped herself "Nevermind, found a way,"

"All I'm saying, is that if you need someone that understands, I've got a bottle of cognac that needs drinking," May said and Emily just gave her a small, grateful smile, nodding her thanks.

"We're five off," Trip said from the cockpit.

"Alright," Emily said, taking a deep breath "Showtime,"


	7. Child

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY ITS TAKEN SO LONG YOU'VE PROBABLY ALL FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS STORY.
> 
> Anyway, here's an update.

The BAU watched through Emily's bodycam as she descended from the Zephyr, S.H.I.E.L.D. by her side.

"You reading me?"

 _"Loud and clear,"_ Rossi replied and the team of agents walked into the lobby of the hotel. There was a white desk at the front with a young woman who had a Bluetooth headset in her ear as she typed away at her computer.

Although their outfits didn't exactly scream 'normal', May, Coulson, Maria and Emily acted as calmly as possible. Emily walked up to the desk as the other three hung back. One person was less intimidating than four, and that was going to get them further.

"Hey there," Emily smiled at the young woman.

"Hi," the woman stopped typing and smiled up at the agent "Checking in?"

"Not today, unfortunately, I was just wondering if you'd seen this man," she said and pulled out her phone to show her a photo of Mills.

The young woman shook her head "I'm sorry, we don't give out information about our guests,"

Emily nodded in understanding "I completely understand, it's just that we believe he might be in a little bit of danger and we'd really like to talk to him," she said, putting the phone away because she knew the woman recognised him "No one will ever know what you told us, this conversation will be forgotten as soon as I walk away,"

The woman hesitated, not really knowing what to do, but sighed slightly anyway and said "Room 203, he went up about an hour ago,"

"Thank you so much," Emily responded "You helped more than you realise,"

Emily walked back to the three other agents in the lobby "203,"

"How long?" Coulson asked.

"An hour,"

"So what now?" May asked "We can't just storm in,"

"That's exactly what we're gonna do," Emily's lip twitched in a slight grin.

May and Coulson both raised their eyebrows whilst Maria just smirked "He'll be expecting that,"

"Yes he will," Emily said, starting to walk to the elevator "So let's give it to him,"

The elevator doors closed and they all unholstered their weapons, May shaking her head "You're playing with fire, Prentiss,"

"I'm doing what needs to be done," said Emily "Dragon-Style,"

"You hate that name," said Coulson, and the elevator doors opened.

"Yes, I do," she said, taking a breath before stepping out, all their guns raised in front of them.

They slowly crept towards the door down the end of the hall. 203. They had no idea what was on the other end, or whether they were even going to make it out. But they had each other's backs, like old times, and that made Emily feel comfortable.

They eventually reached the door and they split two-and-two on either side, being as quiet as possible. They had no idea how Mills' abilities had grown and what he could do. But they needed to stop him, and so far, this was the only way they knew how to do it.

Emily moved so she was standing in front of the door, about to count down to kick it in, but before she reached zero, it opened slowly.

_Fuck._

They all shared a look, they weren't getting off to a great start.

"Hello, Emily," a voice floated out into the hallway, giving her chills, and she finally started to move into the room. The three agents followed behind her, their guns still raised. This was going to be a long battle.

"Max," Emily responded, she couldn't see him anywhere, but they could hear him when he spoke "It's been a long time,"

They reached the middle of the room, and they still couldn't spot him. That was until the door slammed shut behind them, making them spin around fast. He wasn't there.

"Yes, it has," and suddenly, they saw him descending slowly from midair "I knew all of you would show up,"

"Neat trick," Emily said, her voice unwavering.

"Thank you," Max responded, a sly grin on his face "I learnt that one from my friends at La Rivolta, I believe you've heard of them,"

"They're not your friends," Maria said "We are,"

"You locked me in a cage," Max said, his hands clasped behind him, his demeanour was strangely calm.

"We did it for your own protection," May said, her gaze hard down the barrel of her ICER.

"You mean you did it for yours," Max took a step forward, his eyes on Emily.

"We did what we thought we had to do, Max," said Emily "We never meant to hurt you,"

Max chuckled, sending shivers down her spine "Well you did a terrible job,"

Before any of them could respond, all their guns were pulled away from them, and thrown against the walls in opposite directions.

"Well, that didn't last long," Coulson muttered "So what do you want from us?"

"From you?" Max finally looked at the male agent "Nothing," and with that, he picked him up and threw him against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

May instinctively went to move towards him, but the voice of Simmons stopped her _"He's okay, May,"_

_"Stay where you are, Agent May,"_

Agent Hotchner's voice was low and calm, but strong.

_"You need to focus on Mills right now, Agent Coulson will be fine,"_

"You've mastered that pretty well," Emily said "A little over the top, I must say, though,"

Max's eyes went dark and suddenly Emily was being thrown backwards by air and she hit the wall behind her, before hitting the floor.

_"Emily!"_

Emily coughed "Well that was wicked rude," she grumbled out as she stood up again.

"You haven't seen over-the-top yet, Agent Prentiss," Max said, and Emily looked up to see a couch being hurled towards her, only just giving her enough time to duck.

"Really? We're going with Agent Prentiss now?" Emily asked as she and Max started to dance around each other like the start of a boxing match "What happened to Emily?"

"First names are for friends," Max said.

"Not true," Emily said "My mother calls me Emily, and she and I are definitely not friends, I guess you fall under the same category,"

Max was grinding his jaw, she could tell, she was agitating him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Maria and May both leap for Mills, only to be held up in the air by their throats.

"Put them down," Emily said sternly.

"Why should I?" Max asked, and the sound of choking filled the air around them.

"Or you won't know the real story of how you got your powers," said Emily.

Max paused, and looked at her sceptically "I already know how I got my powers,"

"No, you know what they told you," said Emily "But that's not what happened,"

They stood there, an agent unconscious, two dangling in the air by their necks and one facing off with a telekinetic psychopath. Typical day at the office.

"You're lying," Max said, his eyes hard on her.

"Am I?" Emily asked him "I know we did some bad things to you, Max, but I never lied to you, not once,"

Max paused, just staring at her, trying to figure out if she was lying. But it seemed to have worked because he dropped them onto the ground, hard, winding them both.

"Tell me," he said, taking a step closer to Emily.

"Okay," Emily nodded "Okay, I'll tell you,"

May and Maria knew exactly what her plan was, and although she didn’t exactly share the goading part, they knew they couldn't interfere now. So They made their way slowly over to Coulson, and May made him comfortable on her lap, Maria not really in the mood to smirk at them.

"A lot of people spent a lot of time trying to figure out what made people transition, and back then, we couldn't figure it out," Emily started "That's why S.H.I.E.L.D. told you what they did, to help you make sense of something,"

"It didn't help much," Max said, his demeanour was stiff, and stand-offish, but he was still listening intently.

Emily scoffed "I bet," she said "The 'coming-of-age' theory didn't really work for me either," she joked, trying to loosen him up a bit "The whole genetic thing, that's real, you're born into this life, but you don't just grow into it,"

"What happened to me?" Max asked.

Emily continued to explain, she knew she had to keep him interested if this was going to work at all "Teregenisis, it's the transition from human to inhuman,"

Five.

"But you need a special ingredient in order to do it,"

Three.

"Which is?"

One.

"Concentration."

Suddenly, the window glass blew inward and Daisy came crashing the room, catching Mills off guard enough to pin him against the wall as she threw Emily the device FitzSimmons had been working on.

"Get down!" Emily yelled and threw the device towards Mills, as the rest of the agents ducked to the floor, Daisy managing to maintain pinning him against the wall.

BANG!

They all looked up, Daisy had dropped Mills on the floor, where he lay unconscious.

"What the hell was that thing?" Emily asked.

_"It was a device that uses sound waves in order to-"_

"It knocks people out," May cut Fitz off, knowing he would take three years to explain.

_"That's what I was going to say,"_

May grinned slightly, and looked back at Coulson, who wasn't completely unconscious anymore but was just lying on the ground moaning.

Emily chuckled "Amazing," she shook her head and walked over to the unconscious unsub on the ground "Alright, Crazy, let's get you a new home,"

* * *

Daisy sat just watching the monitor in front of her. She was watching the footage of the containment module, where Mills was being held.

May frowned as she looked at her protege, walking in to stand next to her "What are you doing?"

"Just...watching,"

"I can see that," May said "Why?"

Daisy shrugged, swinging in the swivel chair she currently sat in "He's just such a terrible person, y'know,"

"Yes, he is," May sat down next to her.

"I just wonder..." Daisy trailed off, shaking her head, and May waited for her to continue "If I could ever turn out like that,"

May felt a pang in her chest, like her heart had been ripped out.

"I mean, my mother was a murderer, technically so was my father, so why wouldn't I?" Daisy looked at her hands in her lap, and picked at her fingernails.

May didn't hesitate to hold the girls hands in hers "Look at me," May said softly, and Daisy hesitated before her eyes met her mentor's "I want you to listen to me very closely and I want you to really hear me," she said "You are the bravest, most selfless and incredibly kind-hearted person I have ever had the honour of knowing,"

"But-"

"You've already faced the worst life has to offer, Daisy," May said "You've seen the worst in the world, and not only are you stronger for it but your heart has held onto its compassion,"

Emily was right, May needed to tell Daisy how incredible she was. Because this girl was doubting herself in a way that tore her heart.

"Brute force and your fighting ability isn't what gives you strength, it's your compassion," May said, and Daisy had a tear roll down her cheek "Do you know why I'm so sure that you will never turn out the way he did?" Daisy shook her head and May gave her a smile "Because I've seen your heart, and it has scars and bruises, but it is still pure and full, and no matter what happens to you, that can _never_ be taken away from you,"

Daisy gave her a small smile, tears rolling down her cheeks, and May turned her in her chair so they were facing each other "I know I don't say this a lot, I may never have," May said softly "But I am so proud of you, of not just agent you've become, but the woman that I've watched you grow into,"

Daisy was about to open her mouth, when May stopped her "I know you've had the worst time when it comes to parents and family, but I want you to know something," she said "I would be honoured to have you as my daughter,"

That was the moment Daisy broke and let out a sob, falling into the older woman in front of her.

"I got you," May held her as she stroked her hair.

They stayed like that for a while, and May thought the girl may have fallen asleep, until she heard her soft voice "I love you,"

May's heart raced in her chest, she never thought she'd hear those words, and it took a moment to catch herself before she responded "I love you too, Xiao ya,"

* * *

Emily stood outside the containment module as Mills started to wake up. It took a moment for him to come out of his groggy haze, but as soon as he did, he pounded up and thumped on the glass with his fist.

"Max," Emily said, her hands calmly behind her back.

"Emily," he ground back "What did you do to me?"

Emily shrugged "Gave you a taste of your own medicine," she responded "Sit down Max, you're wasting your energy,"

"I'm gonna kill you," he threatened her.

"You're in a box, so just stop," she said, and Max took a couple steps back from the glass, his demeanour relaxing a bit. They just stood in silence for a few moments before Emily finally spoke "I'm sorry,"

"For what?" Max asked.

"I must've hurt you," Emily said "Bringing you in, taking your life away, we let La Rivolta get to you, I should've stopped them, I destroyed your life right?"

Max scoffed "You think this is about you bringing me in?" Emily cocked her head to the side, confused "You probably saved my life that day,"

"Then what are you so angry about?" asked Emily "What did I do to you?"

Max looked away and to the ground, almost ashamed. It took longer than she care to admit, but she finally realised.

"Oh my God," she said quietly "You had a crush,"

"I was in love!" Max yelled.

"You were a kid," Emily said "You were just a kid,"

"And that's all you ever saw me as," Max said angrily "A kid, and then you snuck around with that girl, Hill?"

Emily closed her eyes for a moment "I had no idea, Max,"

"Of course you didn't," said Max "Because you didn't care, I was just a pet project to you,"

Emily shook her head, getting angry "You killed all those women, ripped them apart so there was nothing left, because I didn't pay you enough attention? Because I didn't have feelings for a child? Are you kidding me?"

"Yes!" Max slammed up against the glass, trying to get as close to her as possible.

"Well, Max, congratulations, you never grew up," she responded, and with that, she turned and walked away, hearing him yell after her.

As she turned the corner, she lent against the wall, bowing her head as she tried to keep her breathing under control.

"Emily?"

Hotch.

She kept her head bowed for a second more, taking a deep breath before looking up at him and straightening her spine "Hotch," she said.

"Are you alright?" his eyebrows were furrowed in concern.

She gave him a fake smile, one she knew he would look through "I'm fine,"

"No, you're not," he said, and took her by the elbow to lead her into the nearest room, which happened to be a supply closet.

"Hotch I'm-"

"You are not fine," Hotch cut her off before she could finish "I heard your conversation with Mills, it's not your fault,"

"Well thank you for that, but I think I'll decide that for myself," Emily said and turned to the door to open it, but Hotch blocked it with his hand "Hotch get out of my way,"

"No, I'm trying to talk to you," he said, making her spin to him.

"Oh, now you want to talk?" Emily asked him "After you've ignored me for days? You know what Hotch? I'm done," she said, making him furrow his eyebrows as she continued "I'm done trying to tell you I'm sorry, I'm done feeling bad anymore, it's your problem now,"

Emily turned to exit the door again, but was stopped by Hotch's voice "I know I've been a jackass," he said "Okay? I know," she finally turned around to face him, but her hands were folded in defence and her gaze was elsewhere as he spoke "I was angry, and I acted like a child,"

Emily shifted on her feet as he continued "You know every single thing about my life, because I trusted you enough to tell you, but you didn't trust me enough to tell me about S.H.I.E.L.D."

"That's not-"

"But I'm done being angry, because if I'm angry then I can't be there for you when you have a bad day," Hotch said, and Emily looked up at him, sighing slightly.

"I trust you, Hotch, all of you," she said "But I'm not proud of my past here, I don't like bringing this up, because when I do it reminds me of the things that I've done, things that I hate myself for," she explained "So I keep it buried,"

Hotch looked at her for a moment, but he didn't say anything. He just leaned forward and pulled her into a hug. She stiffened for a bit, not really sure what was happening, but then wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"You should never hate yourself for the things that you've done," Hotch said softly "Because no matter what they were, I know the person you are now and that is all that matters,"

A tear rolled down Emily's cheek and onto his shoulder and she closed her eyes "Thank you,"

Maybe they were all going to be okay after all.


	8. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little shorter, but not much. Hopefully this satisfies your curiosity :)
> 
> Only a couple more to go!

Phil started to stir awake in familiar surroundings. His room. He looked around and to his left he saw a very nice sight for his very sore eyes and head, sitting in the chair beside the bed.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty," May said with small smirk on her face, and looking up from the book in her lap.

"What happened?" Phil asked, trying to sit up, but May's hand on his shoulder and the thumping headache told him that was a bad idea.

"You had a rough meeting with a concrete wall," May replied.

"Ugh Mills," Phil replied "Did you get him?"

May nodded "Daisy did, with the help of FitzSimmons,"

Phil tried to stay awake, and May could tell he was fighting a losing battle when his eyes were closed and a smile spread on his face "Our kids did it,"

May smiled warmly at him and replied quietly "Our kids did it,"

Phil was still grinning like an idiot with his eyes closed but upon moving his head slightly, he groaned "My head hurts,"

"You took a pretty hard hit," said May "I got you some aspirin and some water,"

"I know what would make me feel better," Phil said and finally managed to open his eyes again.

"A new brain?"

"Kiss me," he said and May looked at him with a soft smile on her face, shaking her head.

She lent down, and kissed him softly, and she felt his hand tangle lightly in her hair.

Finally pulling apart, his eyes were closed and he gave her a lopsided grin a she stroked his cheek with her thumb "Better,"

"You are such a dork," May shook her head and sat back down in the chair. As soon as she did, she heard a tiny squeal-like noise from behind the door and May rolled her eyes "Daisy," she called out.

A second later, the door opened and Daisy poked her head through the door a fraction, but still tried to stay hidden "Yes?"

"How much of that did you hear?" May asked.

"Would you believe me if I said none of it?" she asked sheepishly. May gave her look that told her 'no' and Daisy stepped inside the room more and shut the door behind her "Okay, fine, all of it," she said "But I didn't mean to, I was just coming to check on him and then I heard him wake up and I was going to walk away but-"

"Daisy," May stopped her panicked rant.

"You called us your kids," Daisy blurted out and then covered her mouth with both hands, obviously not meant to say it out loud.

"He's out of it," May defended and Daisy looked down nodding, scuffing her toe on the floor like a child "But," May started "He's not wrong,"

Daisy tried to hide her smile, nodding as she continued to look at the floor. She bit the inside of her cheek and May also had to stop herself from smiling at the girl.

"You did good today, Xiǎo yā," May said "You should be proud,"

Daisy shrugged her shoulder "Agent Prentiss did most of the work,"

May smirked "Agent Prentiss can talk shit all day if she has to, but you stopped him," Daisy finally looked at her mentor "Okay?"

She nodded "Okay,"

May had never really been one to show affection, but in that moment with the closest thing she has to a daughter, she reached out and grabbed the girl's hand to give it a light squeeze. Maybe they weren't blood related, but if May's learnt anything in her half a century of a life, it's that you don't need to be, to be a family.

* * *

"Ah!" Emily yelped as a fist collided with her arm "What the fuck, Garcia?"

"That's for antagonising a telekinetic psychopath!" Penelope responded, her arms folding over her chest as the rest of her team snickered in the background.

"What?" Emily asked in defence "I was just messing with him, it was funny,"

"Oh yeah, real funny when he rips you to shreds with his mind!" Garcia retorted before punching her in the arm again "Don't ever do that again,"

"Okay, okay," Emily rubbed her arm "Fine, I won't mess with a crazy inhuman again,"

"Thank you," said Garica, and then pulled her into a bone-crushing hug "We can't lose you again,"

Emily returned the hug, her heart swelling "You're not gonna lose me, PG,"

"Good, because it really sucked last time,"

Emily let out a small chuckle "Yeah, for me too,"

Penelope finally let go of her best friend, and Emily looked at the rest of her team, Hotch standing a couple feet behind her to give her room.

"I know I've got a lot of explaining to do, and I know that I should've told you about S.H.I.E.L.D. from the beginning..." she started "But thank you for sticking around, because this case was not only out of our territory but it was dangerous, and I never wanted to do anything that would put you in harms way,"

"We know," Alex said, a reassuring smile on her face.

"We just don't want you to think you can't be honest with us," JJ said.

"Yeah," Reid smiled "We love you, no matter what,"

"I love you guys, and I trust you more than anything," Emily started "So I need you to trust me when I say that me lying to you about my past had nothing to do with how much I trust or love you,"

There was a silence as they all nodded in agreement, until Rossi spoke up "So what now?" he asked "Are you coming home?"

"Always,"

* * *

"You two were a pain in my ass,"

"Oh come on, we were great students!" Maria defended and Emily laughed on. Everyone sat around the table eating dinner before the BAU set off back home to D.C.

"You died my hair blue!" Coulson cried "It took me weeks to get that shit out,"

"You were being a dick, you deserved it," Emily said, pointing her form at him.

Coulson looked offended "I was not being a dick,"

"Oh please, you made us do so many underwater drills in one day that I was convinced I grew gills," Maria said.

"Yeah, that was a little harsh," May agreed with the two agents "But, that doesn't account for the time you filled Fury's vents with so much confetti you almost killed him,"

"Minor miscalculation," Maria defended with a shrug.

"And putting a live snake in Victoria Hand's bunk?" Coulson asked them.

Emily and Maria started laughing "That was just funny,"

"She had to be sedated," Coulson said, making them laugh even harder.

"It may have been funny to you, but I had to deal with the backlash," May said "Like I said, you were a pain in my ass,"

"Come on, we made everything fun," Emily defended herself. She, Maria and Bobbi had pulled multiple pranks at the academy, even after they graduated. Some were hilarious, others didn't end so well.

"You made everything difficult," May said.

"How many pranks did you pull?" Alex asked them.

"I can't remember-"

"71," May said "And those are just the ones I know about,"

"You kept count?" Maria asked, her eyebrow raised.

"I knew from day one that you two were gonna get me in trouble," May said "So I kept a record of all teh stupid shit you did,"

Emily cocked her head to the side "I'm not sure whether to be offended or not,"

"How did you join?" JJ asked "I mean, S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't exactly advertised on a billboard,"

"When I was in college, I fell in with a bad crowd," Emily started with a shrug "One night we went out to a 'party', turns out it was an underground fight club,"

Emily continued to speak as everyone around the table listened intently "I got pushed in to fight, and I'd been learning martial arts since I was a kid, so I held my own,"

"You won?" Daisy asked.

Emily laughed "No, I lost," she said "But afterwards, I was approached by a woman, said that she was impressed and that she saw potential," she said "So, she asked if I wanted to join, I said yes..." Emily shrugged "The rest is history,"

"Who was she?" Simmons asked her.

"Director Peggy Carter," Emily responded, and she saw the woman's eyes light up "I didn't realise how much of a big deal that meeting was until I'd heard the legends and seen her in action myself, mind you she was in her seventies and still kicking ass,"

"You met Director Carter in the flesh?" Jemma asked in awe "What was she like?"

Emily smiled at her "She was impressive, strong-willed, but what really got me the first time I ever saw her fight wasn't that she could still fight at her age, it was the way she fought,"

"What do you mean?" Daisy asked.

"Well," Emily started "Instead of using martial art techniques like everyone in the academy is trained to, she just uses brute force and strength," Emily continued "There was nothing elegant about it, but if you ever saw it, you'd think it was one of the most incredible things you'd ever seen,"

"Wow," Jemma whispered "I wish I could've met her,"

"Who's Peggy Carter?" Morgan asked, not really following along, like the rest of the BAU.

Jemma looked offended at his question "Who's Peg-" she cut herself off in disbelief, making May and Coulson chuckle to themselves "Margaret Carter, S.S.R Operative and Founder of S.H.I.E.L.D., not only fought side-by-side with Captain America and the 107th Infantry in World War II, but taught Steve Rogers everything he knows about fighting and weapons training and is my personal hero,"

"Sounds like a badass," JJ said.

"She was," Emily gave a sad smile and turned to the youngest S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at the table "She would've liked you, it's a shame you didn't get to meet her,"

The table fell into a comfortable silence before Maria spoke up "Anyway, Mom and Dad are boning,"

Emily punched Maria in the arm "Ow, what the hell?"

"You can never keep your mouth shut," Emily hissed.

May just rolled her eyes, whereas Coulson's were wide open like a deer in headlights.

"I'm doing them a favor!" Maria hissed back.

"No, you're being a brown-noser!"

"Zúgòu!" Enough! May yelled at them, making them silence "Or I'll make you do an underwater drill,"

Maria crossed her arms like a child, and Emily slid down in her chair, slouching.

The table fell into another silence, this one awkward, until Coulson spoke up.

"I'm not old enough to be your Dad," he grumbled.

Well, the secret was out now, no point denying it. Besides, neither of them minded if everyone knew, they were all family anyway.

* * *

Emily and the team made their round of goodbyes, Emily taking significantly longer. She'd said goodbye to all the agents she'd come into contact with, talked to FitzSimmons and told them how impressed she was with them. Both of them had blushed, and it took all of Emily's strength not to laugh at them.

"I gotta admit," Daisy started "You're a hard name to live up to,"

Emily huffed slightly "Trust me, the stories they tell, they're all bogus, you'll learn that one day,"

"Seeing you in action, I'm not so sure," Daisy responded.

Emily gave her a small smile "You're a great agent, Daisy, May and Coulson are lucky to have you," she said "Just promise me something," Daisy cocked her head, waiting for her to continue "Don't ever be afraid of who you are, or what you can do,"

Daisy gave her a warm smile and pulled her in for a hug "Thanks for everything,"

"If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to call," Emily replied as they pulled back and Daisy nodded. Emily gave her arm a gentle squeeze before walking towards Maria.

"Y'know," Maria started "You always did make everything dramatic,"

"Me? Dramatic?" Emily asked, a hand on her chest "Never!"

Maria shook her head, pulling her into a hug "It was good to see you again,"

"Yeah, you too," Emily replied. They stayed like that for a moment before finally pulling back "Maybe a call every ow and again wouldn't be the worst thing in the world,"

"You're on," Maria said, and Emily leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek.

"Don't do anything stupid," Emily said and Maria gave her a lopsided grin before she moved on to the last two people.

As she approached them, Coulson said "You sure you don't want to stay?"

Emily gave him a warm smile but shook her head "I have a new home now, I know where I belong,"

"But-"

"Phil," May put her hand on his arm, stopping him. So he just nodded, and looked down at the ground.

"But, if you need anything, I'll come running," Emily said, and Coulson looked up at her "Okay?"

Phil nodded "Okay," he smiled at her "Maybe we can go for coffee, or you can just join us on a random op,"

Emily chuckled "Yeah, maybe,"

"Phil," May looked across at her best friend "Can you give us a minute?"

Coulson looked between the two of them "Yeah, sure," he replied before walking over to Daisy and Maria.

Emily looked at May, wondering what she wanted to talk to her about "What's up?"

"I'm not gonna tell you what to do," May said "But I am gonna tell you what I see,"

Emily raised an eyebrow at her "Which is?"

"Agent Hotchner," May said "I don't know what the deal is between you two but I do know that you look at him like-"

"Like what?" Emily was starting to put her walls up, and May knew exactly how to get around them.

"Like I look at Coulson," May said, and Emily sighed slightly "And from what I can tell, he looks at you the same way,"

Emily shook her head "I can't,"

"Why not?" asked May, but Emily just looked down "Like I said, I'm not gonna tell you what to do, but I can tell you from experience that those reasons you're telling yourself, they're not good enough reasons,"

Emily looked at her for a moment, and when May gave personal advice, she knew that she had to take it seriously, so she nodded. Emily looked over at Coulson with a small, warm smile on her face "I'm happy for you, the both of you, you deserve it,"

May looked over at the man goofing around with Daisy, and smiled herself, before looking back at Emily. She was already looking at her with a smirk on her face "What?"

"Nothing," Emily said, before pulling her old S.O. into a hug "You're just so in love," she whispered with a grin.

"Stop it," May rolled her eyes. When they pulled apart, May just shook her head before saying "Think about what I said,"

"Said about what?" Coulson had walked back up to them, obviously seeing them hug.

"Joining a birthing class," Emily said without missing a beat "Just for the hell of it,"

Coulson raised his eyebrows at them but just shook his head, pulpling his old protege in for a hug like everyone else "Don't be a stranger,"

"I won't, I promise," said Emily before lowering her voice and whispering "Don't mess this up,"

"I won't, I promise," Coulson mimicked back before they pulled apart "Take care of yourself,"

"You too," Emily responded and turned around to walk to her team in front of the quinjet.

"You ready to go home?" Dave asked her.

"Yeah, I'm ready,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope it was okay! Let me know! x


	9. Closure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, I think the next chapter is going to be the last one so I'll try and make them real interesting.
> 
> Enjoy!

"You think she's gonna be okay?" May asked Phil as they sat on the couch together, watching a movie that was on TV.

"Yeah," Phil said, his finger twirling patterns on her arm as she curled into him "I think she will be,"

May's head rested against his chest and her feet were tucked under her "Hopefully she's got a different memory of S.H.I.E.L.D. now,"

Phil hummed in agreement as they watched the screen, sitting in comfortable silence before he spoke up "Should I have given that Hotchner a stern talking to?"

Melinda laughed out loud "Phil, he's nearly a foot taller than you,"

"So?" he asked, offended "I have a robotic hand, I can make him explode from the inside out,"

"Okay, calm down," Melinda laughed softly "Emily can handle herself, okay? If she wants you to threaten people, I'm sure she'll ask you,"

"Mhm," Phil said sceptically "He better not try anything, or I'll kill him,"

"I believe you," Melinda replied just as Daisy walked in.

"Hey there, kiddo," Phil said a Daisy sat down next to Melinda.

"What're you watching?" Daisy asked crossing her legs on the couch.

"Some cheesy horror film," May responded "It's really not scary once you've been doing this job for a while,"

"Why do they always walk towards the creepy noise?" Daisy asked "It's like they want to die,"

A few minutes later, FitzSimmons walked in with a bowl of popcorn "I heard a movie," Jemma said, a big smile on her face.

"What are we watching?" Fitz asked as the two of them took a seat on the floor in front of May and Coulson.

"Cheesy horror film," Daisy said, grabbing a handful of popcorn from the bowl Jemma had in her hand.

"Oh, I love horror films!" Jemma said excitedly "They're so easy to make fun of,"

Melinda felt Phil laugh next to her, and couldn't help but smile to herself as she looked around. Curling up with her best friend, laughing at a movie with her 'kids' whilst no imminent threat opposes them.

She looked over at Phil, who had a goofy grin on his face as he looked at her. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, asking a silent question if she was okay. To which she just smiled, and pressed her lips gently against his.

Their little family, right here, right now, was everything she needed. All the tragedy and the loss in her life, felt like it was leading up to this point. And the only problem she had, was that she had to kick herself for not realising it sooner.

* * *

Emily walked through the door of her apartment, and all she could think about was that conversation with May. She knew exactly how she felt about Hotch, she'd felt that way for a while. But there was always something holding her back.

The fact that he was her boss, then Doyle, then she wasn't comfortable with herself post-death, then she was on the other side of the world, and now...

Now she just didn't want him to get hurt. And she knew she would hurt him. Whether it be her past come back to haunt him, or her commitment issues coming through. Either way, she was going to destroy him in a way that would destroy her too.

Then there was Jack. She loved Jack, like he was her own. They'd always had a special bond, even before Haley died. Everyone else was Aunt or Uncle, but she was just Emmy. Even with him being thirteen now, he still called her Emmy. He had melted her heart multiple times, and she knew the moment they had their first conversation, that she would give her life for that boy.

She loved Henry and Michael too, she really did, but there was something about Jack that just stole her heart.

She had been so far away in her own world that she physically jumped when her phone rang "Jesus, Prentiss, get a grip," she muttered to herself as she picked it up "Agent Prentiss,"

_"Hey Emmy,"_

Emily sighed a breath of relief "Jack," she smiled before frowning slightly "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

_"Everything's fine, Dad said you were having a bad day, so I thought I would call to ask if you're okay,"_

There we go. Her heart melted again "Oh, baby, I'm fine," she said, sitting on the couch with her legs tucked underneath her "We just had a long case is all, what about you? How's school?"

_"Yeah, school's okay. I made captain of the debate team!"_

"Jack, that's amazing! I'm so proud of you, although not the least bit surprised," she heard him giggle, and it reminded her of when he was six. Just as innocent, just as sweet.

_"So did you get the bad guy?"_

Emily smiled "We did, he's sitting in jail as we speak,"

They spoke for another half an hour or so, Jack telling her all about school and his debate team. He even mentioned a girl he liked. He said that he hadn't told Hotch yet so that one was between them. They had innocent secrets like that, and she never told Hotch anything. Because she knew the moment she did, Jack wouldn't tell her anymore, and he needed someone that wasn't his father to talk to.

Hotch knew they had secrets, but he also knew that if they weren't innocent or Jack was in trouble, Emily would tell him right away. It was nice to have that kind of trust. And Emily liked to think that Hotch liked having her there for Jack to talk to.

She heard Jack yawn and knew that he should get to bed.

"You should get some sleep, bud," she said softly into the phone, looking at her watch "It's getting pretty late,"

_"Okay, I'll talk to you soon,"_

"Yeah, baby, you will," she responded "Goodnight, Jack,"

_"G'night, Emmy,"_

* * *

"We should get a puppy," Phil said sleepily as he watched Melinda's bare back rise and fall. She opened her eyes to look at him.

"We're not getting a puppy," she said before closing her eyes again.

"Why?" he asked, whining.

Melinda groaned and lifted herself up so she was propped up on elbow, her head resting on her closed fist and she was looking down at him "What would we do with a puppy?"

"Play with it," Phil said, smiling "We could train it, to be our cutest S.H.I.E.L.D. agent ever, apart from me of course,"

Melinda rolled her eyes at him but smiled anyway "We can't look after a dog on base,"

"Why not?" Phil asked "We're responsible,"

"I don't know if you've noticed this," Melinda said "But our home keeps getting blown up,"

"That's only happened a couple of times," Phil defended "It probably won't happen again,"

"Yeah, odds of probability don't apply in our line of work," Melinda retorted "Why are you so adamant on this? You've never brought it up before,"

Phil sighed and rolled onto his back, so he could face the ceiling "I heard the kids talking about it," he said, and Melinda softened as he continued "FitzSimmons were talking about pets they'd had when they were kids, and Daisy said all she ever wanted was a puppy, but she never got one,"

That made Melinda's heart break, and she knew it made his break too. She bent down, kissing his shoulder gently, making him look at her "I just want to give her something that's good, y'know?"

"Yeah," she responded softly "So do I, but you know what? She's all grown up now, and even after all the shit she's been through, she still grew up to be..."

"Incredible," Phil finished for her, making her nod with a smile.

"Exactly,"

Phil sighed "I hate it when you're right," he said, rolling towards her and taking her with him as he buried her beneath him, making her laugh.

"I'm always right," she said right before he pecked her lips softly.

"And I always hate it," he responded and captured her lips again "But, just think of a cute little puppy running around here,"

Melinda groaned "Fine, I'll think about it,"

* * *

It had been a week since they'd arrested Mills, and everything was back to normal. Supposedly. She felt different, like a weight on her shoulders was lifted. But she also felt terrified. Terrified that now they knew about her past, it was going to put them in danger.

Emily had always stuck with the whole 'the less they know, the better' thing, but they don't see it that way. So she had to suck it up, and deal with her own demons, before they hurt the people she loved the most.

Right now, that demon was herself, and the only person she knew wouldn't judge her for the things she'd done, was the person she confided in the most.

So after work one night, he took her out for a drink. A rowdy bar that let them talk in peace, but not too loud that they couldn't hear each other.

"So, are you gonna tell me what this is about?" Rossi asked as she sipped on his scotch.

Emily nodded, sipping on her own beer "You're the only one I can talk to,"

"Okay," Rossi leaned forward on the table between them "I'm all ears,"

Emily took a breath "I take it you heard some things when we were at S.H.I.E.L.D..."

"Not much," he responded "That you were a legend, and that they call you 'The Dragon',"

Emily nodded as she looked down "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of,"

"I take it, it wasn't a childhood nickname," Rossi said, to which Emily snorted.

"I wish," she said, pulling at the label of her beer "I was sent in on an intel-grab at a military base in Russia, in-and-out, get the intel, go home,"

Rossi listened as she continued "Only when I got there, it wasn't a military base at all,"

"What was it?"

"A concentration camp," said Emily "Only they'd kidnapped little girls, training them to be killers," she shook her head, and Rossi could tell she'd never told this story out loud before "I tried to get them out, the new ones that hadn't been there so long I convinced, but the others...they were too far gone. I got whatever intel Fury wanted and hid it, but I was captured by the guards, locked in a cell and held prisoner. They had no idea who I was or why I was there,"

"For how long?"

"I don't know," Emily shrugged "Three weeks, maybe four, I lost track,"

"How come no one came to get you?" Rossi asked.

"It was only supposed to be an intel-grab, a one-man mission with no extraction plan, no one was keeping tabs," Emily explained "Eventually there was another prisoner, adult prisoner, all he had on him was a box of matches. I memorised the shift patterns, when they fed us, how they operated. One guard was an alcoholic, he would never pass out but one day he did, I couldn't reach his keys but I could reach the bottle of vodka,"

"What, you drank your way out?" Rossi raised an eyebrow, making her snort a little.

"Remember the matches?" Emily asked.

"You set him on fire?"

"Only his jacket sleeve, it wasn't on his skin," Emily defended "He woke up and in his hurry to get the jacket off, he was close enough to the cell for me to grab the keys off his belt. He left the room for a few minutes, it was enough time to figure out which key opened the cell,"

"You slipped out?"

"Not quite," Emily shook her head "We couldn't risk a call out on the radios, so we waited for him to come back in and as soon as he got close enough to the door I knocked him out with it, locked him in the cell and took him radio,"

"Smart,"

"That's what I thought too," said Emily "That other prisoner I told you about, he wasn't a prisoner,"

"He was a plant,"

"They wanted intel from me too," said Emily "I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut, but my escape plan gave me away,"

"Who was he?"

"The leader," she said "He led me right into a trap,"

"What kind of trap?"

Emily hesitated and took another drink, Rossi could see tears forming in her eyes as she put the bottle back down "Kids," was all she said and somehow, Rossi knew exactly what she meant.

"He had the kids attack you," he said quietly "How many?"

"I don't know," she shook her head, a tear rolling down her face "It started off with six, and then they just kept coming, and I tried so hard not to hurt them..." her hand was shaking, and Rossi took it in his to calm her down a bit "And I didn't, I didn't hurt any of them, just knocked them out."

"But," she continued "He used that against me, he said that if I didn't give him the information he wanted he would kill them," she took a breath "To show me he was serious, he just picked one up and shot her in the head, without blinking,"

"Then what?" he asked softly.

"I tried convincing him that I worked for the FBI, ironically, that I was just supposed to come and check the place out," she said "Didn't work,"

"He killed another,"

"Another two," Emily said, sniffing and wiping her nose with the back of her sleeve "So I told him the truth, I told him everything, everything but the fact that I got the intel,"

"Did he believe you?"

"Yes," she responded "And he let the other girls go, and I thought he was just going to kill me with the gun but then he pulled out a trigger button,"

"For a bomb?"

Emily nodded "Three minutes on the clock, plenty of time for me to get out myself, but..."

"Not enough to get the girls out," Rossi finished, making her nod.

"I got a few out, but I knew there were others in there, I knew," Emily's knuckles were white as she gripped her bottle "I knew and I left them there,"

"Emily, listen to me," Rossi said, squeezing her hand "If you hadn't left them, then you would be dead too,"

"Maybe, then I would've died trying, I would've done everything I could," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"That's not okay with me," said Rossi "You said it yourself, there was no saving those kids, they were too far gone, and if you had killed yourself trying to save them, then all the good you've done, everything you did after that never would've happened,"

Emily nodded, she knew he was right, but losing kids was one thing, and losing kids that you might've been able to save was another.

"Then what happened?"

Emily took a breath, then continued "The fucker came back," she said "He found us, before I knew what what happening he'd killed all the girls, he shot me in the leg, ranting about how I thought I could come in and take all his girls from him. He had that bottle of vodka from the guard, so I asked him if I could have some before he killed me,"

"You hate vodka,"

"I do," said Emily, nodding "But I still had that box of matches, so I lit it and sprayed it right in his face,"

"You breathed fire," Rossi realised.

"Ergo," she said, grabbing her beer bottle "The Dragon," she downed the rest of her beer "I hate that name,"

"You've buried this for so long, why tell me now?" Dave asked her.

"Because it's been haunting me for the past ten years," she said "I thought if I could tell the story, the way it really happened, maybe it would...I don't know,"

"Give you closure?"

"Something like that, yeah," Emily said.

"And did it?" he asked.

Emily shrugged. She didn't know what she was feeling right now. Telling that story all the way through for the first time was overwhelming.

"Ask me tomorrow,"


	10. Anger and Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINAL CHAPTER GUYS!!! HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!

"So," Dave asked her as he reached her desk the next day, she was the first one in the bullpen, Hotch was in his office "How do you feel?"

"Better," she smiled warmly at him as she stood up to talk to him "I mean, there's still a lot of shit I have to sort out but it feels good that someone knows the real story, y'know?"

"Glad I can help, Bella," Rossi said before leaning forward to kiss her on the cheek "I'm always here to talk,"

"Thanks Dave," she replied softly, putting a hand on his arm as he continued to walk to his office. She took a breath and grabbed the file that she'd finished on her desk and started to walk up the stairs to Hotch's office. She knocked twice on the door, making him look up from his desk "Hey, I've got the DeLucci file for you,"

"Oh, thanks," he responded and sat up a bit more as she handed it over "What was that about?" he gestured to the bullpen, and Emily looked puzzled "With Dave,"

"Oh!" she realised and her immediate instinct was to lie "He's helping me find a new place,"

"You're moving?" Hotch asked her, genuine interest on his face, which made her rethink her plan.

Emily sighed "No," she said, making his eyebrows furrow in confusion "He's not helping me find a place, he's been helping me deal with some stuff,"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff," Hotch said, more of a statement than a question, making her nod.

"The stuff from my past, I just..." Emily shook her head slightly "I've been struggling with it for a long time, and if I want to move on with my life I need to get some closure or whatever,"

Hotch nodded, closing the file he was reading on his desk "Emily, you don't need to lie to me about this stuff anymore,"

"I know," Emily replied "It's just instinct I guess,"

"I think moving is good idea though," Hotch said, looking back down at his file "You've been trying to get out of that apartment ever since you came back from Paris,"

"And what, like buy my own house?" Emily asked, like it was the most ridiculous thing in the world.

Hotch looked up at her, his mouth twitching "You have really bad commitment issues, you know that?"

Emily put her hand on her chest in mock offence "That hurts me," she said "Besides, I can commit, but bank loans are scams and then your whole life becomes a scam,"

"You think my life is a scam?"

"Do you have a mortgage?" she asked him.

"Yes,"

"Then, yes," said Emily, shrugging "Sorry,"

Hotch chuckled and shook his head "You're paranoid,"

"I'm realistic," Emily defended and started to walk back towards the door. May's words kept echoing in her head.

_Those reasons you're telling yourself, they're not good enough reasons..._

Emily paused at the door, taking a deep breath. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it now, when he's looking at her normally again.

She turned around to face him, and just stood there, making Hotch look up at her curiously "You okay?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah," she said, a smile on her face "I just..."

She looked at him closely, his face was soft as he looked back at her. Sure, it was still a Hotch Face, but there was no crease between his brow and his eyes weren't slightly squinting. Looking at him now, she knew that if she lost him as a friend, she wouldn't be able to bear it.

"Em?"

"Uh, nothing," she said quickly "I was just thinking that it's good to be back here,"

Hotch gave her a small, warm smile "It's good to have you back here,"

Emily smiled at him before turning on her heels and walking straight out the door, kicking herself as she did it. That wasn't happening today.

_Ugh. Jesus, Prentiss._

* * *

"Daisy, wake up," May said in hurried panic, and Daisy stirred awake slowly as May shook her gently.

"What's happening?" Daisy asked in a haze of sleep "What time is it?"

"Early," May replied, starting to help her out of bed "We have to go, now,"

May walked over to her dresser drawers and pulled out a sweater for her put on "What's going on?"

"Just follow me," May said, not telling her anything, just leading her out of her room "We have to get Coulson,"

"Where is he?" Daisy asked her in a loud whisper.

"The training room," she responded as they made their way down the hall, May looking around her, paranoid. She stopped at a corner, backing up against the wall, taking Daisy with her before looking around the corner to check if anyone was there before they continued down the corridor.

When they got to the training room, May pulled Daisy in, to which she started freaking out "Can you please tell me what the hell's going on?" Daisy looked around the room before turning back to May, who looked extremely calm and slamost a hint of a smile on her face "Where's Coulson?"

May just nodded for her to look behind her again, and when she did, Coulson stood in the middle of the room with a box in his hands.

"What is happening right now?" Daisy asked, to which May just put a hand on her back and guided her towards Phil.

"We missed your birthday," Phil said, standing there in a t-shirt and sweatpants "Mainly because we didn't know when it was, and today is your four year anniversary of becoming a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent,"

Daisy looked at him, before looking across at May, who was giving her a warm smile and brushed the girl's hair behind her shoulders "Open it,"

Phil held out the cardboard box to her and Daisy reached forward and opened the lid of the box, her eyes going wide and her hands coming up to cover her mouth "Oh my god," she breathed before looking up at Phil and Melinda "Are you serious?"

"Happy Anniversary, Xiǎo yā," May leaned over and kissed her temple and Daisy's eyes started to fill with tears.

She reached into the box, pulling out a tiny blue American Staffy, cradling it in her arms as the pup wagged its tail "We found this little guy at the pound," Coulson started as he put the box on the floor "Someone threw him in a trash can, one of the garbage men found him,"

"Why would someone do that?" Daisy whispered to the puppy "Does he have a name?"

"Not yet," May said softly "That part's all yours,"

"I always wanted a puppy," Daisy said, crying. She had tears rolling down her cheeks but still smiled anyway when she said "Mr. Peanut Butter,"

May laughed out loud as Coulson raised his eyebrows at her "Mr. What now?"

"Mr. Peanut Butter," Daisy repeated "I had a stuffed dog that looked exactly like this guy, and his name was Mr. Peanut Butter,"

Coulson and May shared a warm smile as Daisy lifted the dog up and started to make noises as if it were a baby "Mr. Peanut Butter it is," Coulson said, wrapping his arm around May's waist.

Daisy put the dog down, back in the box for a moment before she pulled them both in for a hug "Thank you,"

Both of the older agents wrapped their arms around their girl, when May spoke softly "We just want you to be happy,"

That's when Daisy started to sob, and they held her tighter "I love you guys," she said after her sobs died down.

"We love you too," Phil said before kissing her temple as they pulled back.

"There's gonna be rules though," May said and Daisy nodded her head.

"Of course,"

"You have to train it, feed it, look after it..." she continued.

"Can he sleep in my room?" she asked hopeful.

"Yes," May replied and Daisy squealed as she picked the pup up again, scratching his ears "But, not on the bed,"

"Not on the bed," Daisy nodded "Got it,"

She put Mr. Peanut Butter on the floor, who started to pounce and run around on the mats and Daisy chased and played with him with absolute joy on her face.

Phil wrapped his arm around Melinda's waist again, and saw her wipe the corner of her eye "Agent May, are you getting emotional?" he asked.

"Shut up," she said, slapping his chest, to which he chuckled "She's just so happy,"

Phil smiled "Yeah, she is," he replied "I'm glad we did this,"

May hummed in agreement before saying "That dog's gonna sleep on her bed, isn't he?"

"Oh, absolutely,"

* * *

Nearly a month after the chat in Hotch's office, the team was sent on a case in Michigan. A number of cult killings in the area made the local sheriff's department call in the BAU.

The team had tracked down the cult members and tracked them to a location, but in the process Reid and JJ were held at gunpoint, ready to be their next sacrifice.

Emily had argued back and forth with Hotch about sending her in alone to get the job done, but he gave her a direct order to stay put.

So, of course, she didn't listen, and went in anyway.

She'd gotten in and taken down the unsubs and found JJ ad Reid without incident, but Hotch was still angry at her. She understood that she defied a direct order, but she also saved her teammates and they all knew that was the safest way.

Maybe he just didn't believe she could do it, that she'd get herself killed, or maybe he was just being an arrogant jackass. But whatever the reason, she was pissed at him too. She managed to arrest seven unsubs on her own and saved her best friends in a span of ten minutes, and he still didn't trust her.

A text from JJ sent through, and she couldn't help but snort at it.

_'You're a fucking idiot, but I love you. Thank you for saving us today. x'_

She sent a quick response just as there was a knock at her door. She furrowed her eyebrows as she put her phone down, walking to the front door to look through the peephole. When she saw who was standing there, she rolled her eyes, but opened it anyway.

"Sir," she said, in the usual 'fuck you' voice she uses when she called him that.

"Can I come in?" Hotch asked.

Emily stepped to the side, letting him in, her lips pursed in annoyance "What can I do for you?"

Hotch turned around once he reached the living room "You've been suspended, two weeks,"

Emily slammed the door and walked slowly towards him "Excuse me?"

"Effective immediately," he said, his face stone cold and his voice calm.

"You're fucking kidding me, right?" Emily asked, eyes filled with anger.

"Your actions were reckless and you put everyone in danger," he started "Not to mention you defied a direct order,"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Emily said sarcastically "But I'm pretty sure that your brilliant tactic of just storming the building was going to get JJ and Reid killed,"

"You're probably right," Hotch said "But we would've found another way,"

"And did you?" Emily asked him, eyebrows raised.

"We didn't have time, you pulled a cowboy stunt," Hotch said, his voice raising.

"Any longer and they would've been dead!" she yelled, silencing him "I did what I had to do to save my team,"

Hotch shook his head, his voice loud as he spoke "Our team doesn't operate this way, if you want to do things alone, maybe you should go back to S.H.I.E.L.D."

"You would love that, wouldn't you?" Emily retorted "After everything we've done, you still don't trust me as an agent,"

"I trust you, Emily!" Hotch yelled back at her "What I don't trust is that you're going to come back to me!" Emily fell silent as he continued on his rant "I don't trust that you're not gonna pull a stunt like you did today and you're gonna get yourself hurt again! What I don't trust is the fact that I can't protect you!"

Now it was Hotch's turn to fall silent, and Emily stayed quiet for a moment before finally saying "I don't need you to protect me,"

Hotch nodded, looking away "Yeah, well, that's not going to stop me from trying," and with that, he started to walk back to the front door.

"Hey!" Emily called after him "You don't get to just walk away!"

"What do you want me to say, Emily?" Hotch asked her, turning back around.

"I want you to tell me why you're so goddamn butt-hurt over this!" she yelled, her eyebrows furrowed "I want to know why you are so terrified!"

Hotch took a step forward "Because I love you!" he shouted, shocking her into silence "Because even the thought of losing you again fucking tears me apart," he said, his voice lower but still forceful "I imagine a world where you aren't in it anymore and I can't breathe," his eyes were watering at this point "That's why,"

He turned around, ready to walk out the door, and she realised she still hadn't moved or said anything. So she reached out, pulling on his arm to spin him back around and pulled him down to crash her lips against his. It took him a moment to register, but then kissed her back, firmly but gently.

He tangled his hands through her hair, keeping her close as they eventually pulled back "I'm right here, Hotch," Emily whispered "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere,"

"I can't lose you again," he whispered back, resting his forehead against hers, his eyes closed.

"You won't," Emily replied, pulling him in for a hug. She felt him bury his face in her neck and couldn't help but feel right at home in his arms.

_Ugh, God, you're such a cliche, Prentiss._

They stayed like that for a solid few minutes before they ended up on the couch, watching a movie of some sort. Hotch managed to end up wrapped around Emily's waist as she leaned back against the arm of the couch. She was pretty sure he was asleep as she ran her fingers through his hair, until he spoke is a sleepy voice.

"You're still suspended."

* * *

Melinda awoke to a jab to her gut, making he grunt slightly as she opened her eyes. It was still dark, but she could see in the glowing light of the alarm clocks on the tables, that there were two extra lumps in their bed than usual.

One, a dog who, despite having a 'no bed' rule, continually kept ending up in anyone and everyone's bed. Including their's. And two, a daughter, who she doesn't remember her climbing into bed with them.

"She had a nightmare," Phil whispered to her, obviously feeling her move around.

"And the dog?" she raised an eyebrow at him, and even though he couldn't see it, he definitely knew it was there.

"He's a giant hot water bottle," Phil replied, making May roll her eyes before settling back down to go back to sleep.

A few hours later, she awoke again. She felt a weight over her torso, only today it wasn't Phil, it was Daisy. She'd curled herself into May's side, her head on her shoulder. She looked over at Phil, and couldn't help but smile when she saw him cuddled up to the dog.

She should've known he wouldn't abide by the 'no bed' rule either. They were just as bad as each other.

She smiled at her little family, having one of those moments again. She brushed her hands through Daisy's hair, kissing her forehead, to which Daisy just snuggled closer.

It almost felt ridiculous how happy she was, it felt like she didn't deserve it. She tried to have this kind of happiness before, with Andrew, and it all went downhill. After Bahrain she just gave up, because not only could she barely look at herself in the mirror, but she couldn't bring a child into this world.

But right now, she had never been happier, and nothing else existed. She didn't want any of it to end, she she closed her eyes and just lay there, savouring it.

That's when her phone beeped. She opened her eyes, reaching over to her bedside table, trying not to wake the girl on her arm. She picked up the phone and read the message. It was Emily.

_'You were right x'_

May couldn't help but smirk.

Of course she was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it, we're done. FInished. Finito.
> 
> Hopefully you guys liked it, i loved writing it, even the cheesy parts lmao. Leave me comment to tell me how I did, and don't hold back!
> 
> Thanks so much for sticking with me this long, I hope it was worth it. xx

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!!


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